James Morrison was on the cusp of calling it quits.<\/p>\n
Having played 15 straight seasons on the DP World Tour before losing his card last season, the 40-year-old Morrison entered this week\u2019s HotelPlanner Tour finale, the Rolex Grand Final, six spots outside the points cutoff for at least as conditional return to Europe\u2019s main circuit. He\u2019d need a nice week in Mallorca, Spain, because if not, there was little chance he\u2019d be grinding another year in the minors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was going to be my last event, 100%, and this has completely messed it up,\u201d an emotional Morrison said Sunday afternoon after his convincing three-shot victory vaulted him all the way to sixth in the developmental tour\u2019s points race.<\/p>\n
With the top 20 players securing full DP World Tour cards for next season \u2013 an additional 10 earn conditional membership \u2013 Morrison will resume his lengthy DP World Tour career that has included 438 starts and two wins.<\/p>\n
Morrison first graduated from the previously named Challenge Tour in 2009 before winning in Portugal as a DP World Tour rookie. He\u2019d win again, at the 2015 Spanish Open, but that remained his last professional triumph until he won earlier this season on the HotelPlanner Tour.<\/p>\n
Despite having already won, Morrison entered this week at No. 36 in points. With his 13-year-old son, Finley, on the bag, he used a 7-under 65 on Saturday to build a three-shot cushion with one round to play. He three-putted the par-5 first on Sunday and then bogeyed his next, but three birdies in a four-hole stretch starting at the par-5 11th allowed Morrison to pull away, even if it did little to quell the nerves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat swing on the last, I couldn\u2019t feel my arms. It went so far right,\u201d said Morisson, who closed in bogey to shoot 70 and finish at 15 under, ahead of runner-up Stefano Mazzoli, who\u2019s solo second move him up 10 spots to No. 8 in the final standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s over with, let\u2019s put it that way,\u201d Morrison added. \u201cBut no, I played nicely all week. Didn\u2019t play as well today, but kind of managed my emotions, dug into my memory bank and my wins on the DP World Tour, and the wind blowing really helped me today because I knew the harder it got, the more it would play into my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025-26 DP World Tour season begins Nov. 27 at the BMW Australian PGA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t got a tour bag. I haven\u2019t got a caddie,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cI\u2019m going to have to figure some stuff out.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s J.C. Ritchie, who logged 28 starts on the DP World Tour in 2023 but made only 11 cuts, has known he\u2019d be returning to the big tour for a while. He won three times this year, including twice in September, while pushing his career total of HotelPlanner Tour wins to seven.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t really sunk in,\u201d Ritchie said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand what I\u2019ve done. I think I\u2019ve had an unbelievable season. When I fly back home, or maybe even tonight, I\u2019ll sit down and have a think. It\u2019s been a dream season for me. It was something that one of my first coaches told me, when I was preparing to be on tour. He said to try to be the best on every tour before you level up or try to be in the top 10. I managed to win the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, and then it\u2019s taken time to learn how to play out here and compete\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not the person I was last year. I\u2019m happier with my game, I know what I\u2019m doing and I\u2019m glad I\u2019ve managed to prove to myself that I\u2019m good enough play out here and compete at a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here is the full list of HotelPlanner Tour graduates:<\/p>\n
NOS. 1-20 (CATEGORY 15)
1. J.C. Ritchie
2. David Law
3. Maximilian Steinlechner
4. Renato Paratore
5. Oihan Guillamoundeguy
6. James Morrison
7. Filippo Celli
8. Stefano Mazzoli
9. Daniel Van Tonder
10. Sebastian Garcia
11. Daniel Young
12. Felix Mory
13. Joshua Berry
14. Euan Walker
15. Quim Vidal
16. Hugo Townsend
17. Tobias Jonsson
18. Rocco Repetto Taylor
19. Clement Charmasson
20. Albin Bergstrom<\/p>\n
NOS. 21-30 (CATEGORY 20)
21. Jovan Rebula
22. Lukas Nemecz
23. Per Langfors
24. Jamie Rutherford
25. Anton Albers
26. Julian Perico
27. Victor Sidal Svendsen
28. Jonathan Goth-Rasmussen
29. Calum Fyfe
30. Palmer Jackson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Morrison was on the cusp of calling it quits. Having played 15 straight seasons on the DP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-267800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}