NEW Zealand’s Michael Long was the only player to card four consecutive sub-70 rounds as he won the Staysure Tour Qualifying School Final Stage by two shots at Pestana Golf Resort.
The Kiwi was rock solid from the outset and saved his best for last, signing for rounds a 66 to finish on 14-under in a pressure-packed week on the Algarve.
Five players earned Staysure Tour cards for the 2020 season and while Long’s earlier rounds of 67, 68 and 69, suggested he would card 70 or more on the final day, he held his nerve to outgun his rivals.
Long said: “I’ve been lucky. I’ve been pretty much exempt on most tours that I’ve played on.
“I think the last time I had a successful tour school was in 1992 or 1991, and that was down in Australia. I’ve failed a couple times in Final Stage on the US tour.
“I can’t believe it really. This is completely out of the blue. It’s a lot of really good players out here, and if you can’t smile now, when can you?
“It’s just nice to come out on top of a top quality field,” added Michael Long.
The 51-year old, who has competed in 99 European Tour events in his career, has eight professional victories to his name.
Sharing second place on 12-under were Scottish amateur Euan McIntosh and Canada’s former PGA Tour player David Morland IV.
The two players spent the majority of Final Stage inside the all-important top five and like Long, will now compete in their rookie seasons on the Staysure Tour.
McIntosh, who won the 2018 Scottish Amateur Championship, said: “I play a lot of high-end amateur events with guys that are going to be winning European Tour events, and I’ve been doing that for the last three years.
“It’s been a really good grounding, these young guys have been amazing,” added the Turnhouse Golf Club member, from Edinburgh.
“They’ve pushed me on to get my golf to the level it’s at now. Without their help, and their competitiveness, I wouldn’t be here right now.
“The strange thing is, I’m sad in a way to be leaving the amateur ranks,” admitted McIntosh, who at the start of 2019 harboured real hopes of playing in a Walker Cup at the age of 50, having been named in Craig Watson’s provisional squad.
Euan said: “I’ve got a lot of friends, because I play for Scotland, and now I’m not going to be doing that ever again.
“It’s great, but there’s a bit of sadness there,” said McIntosh, who won the Tennant Cup a year ago – the oldest amateur strokeplay competition in the world.
But there was disappointment for another Scot – Aberdeen’s Scott Henderson, who missed out on a shoot-out for the final card by a shot, after the 1997 European Tour Rookie of the Year finished with a second consecutive 68.
McIntosh will now turn professional and join Paul Lawrie, Andrew Oldcorn and Gary Orr in the European Senior Tour ranks.
Meanwhile Morland IV will bring the professional experience he has gained from two wins on the Nationwide Tour – the PGA’s feeder tour – as the two players further strengthen the quality of golf in Europe’s senior ranks.
Morland, who had led Long by a shot going into the fourth round, said: “I’ve played all over the world from Asia, South America, Canada, mostly in the US, but I haven’t played that much in Europe.
“So I’m looking forward to it this year. You’re going to have all the top European players that played at the same time frame that I did.
“The quality of golf is there so I’m just looking forward to playing all over Europe.”
Raitt ready for return to big time
SURREY’S Andrew Raitt, who competed in 132 European Tour events between 1999 and 2010, finished alone in fourth place on 10-under par.
That sealed the Weybridge player’s own rookie Staysure Tour season thanks to a final round of 67, which kept him inside the qualification number.
Raitt, who was forced to quit the European Tour in 2007, was delighted to earn another crack at the big time.
“I played the European Tour for seven or eight years but struggled a lot with injuries and stuff like that,” said Raitt, who underwent surgery on a finger injury after being bitten by a dog back in 1995.
“This is a new lease of life. I’ve been looking forward to it and trying to work towards this,” added Raitt, who was only awarded £4,500 in a complicated court battle over the injury, which he pursued for a seven-figure compensation claim, in 2002..
“I’ve had a lot of help from people at home, the golf club have been brilliant so all the members from St George’s Hill, thank you very much.
“It feels good to pay them back and give them something to root for this year.”
Raitt – the 1986 English Schoolboys Champion who claimed the Surrey Amateur Championship in 1993 – ended up with a little finger that was 0.5cms shorter after the operation.
But a High Court judge dismissed his £6million claim which alleged it cost him a career at the top, including his ambition to play in the Ryder Cup.
Raitt’s legal costs were estimated at £100,000.
Suneson seals Staysure return in play-off
THE battle for the fifth and final card required extra holes as Spain’s Carl Suneson fellow countryman Victor Casado and Surrey’s Gary Marks were deadlocked on eight-under after 72 holes.
Suneson birdied the first play-off hole – the par four 17th, to seal a return to the Staysure Tour for a third time.
The Gran Canaria pro – who played for England as an amateur in the late 1980s before adopting his father’s citizenship in 1996 – is the only qualifying school graduate who will not be a rookie in 2020.
Suneson. who played for Engand as an amateur between 1988 and 1989 before turning pro in 1990, said: “To get the fifth card is fantastic.
“There was pressure, but I did it and I’m happy. I wanted to get the play-off finished quickly, and I was able to hit three great shots.
“I’ve had shoulder problems for the last two-and-a-half years, but I’ve been doing physio and slowly getting things tuned in,” added Suneson, whose only professional win in 20 years on the European Tour came in the 2007 Open Saint Omer.
But Suneson did pick up five wins on the Challenge Tour between 1995 and 2006 and his best Staysure Tour finish came in 2019 – his third year on Tour, when he was sixth at December’s MCB Tour Championship in Mauritius, the final event of the year.
•To see the final results from Pestana click here.
Losing out to Els at Johnnie Walker Classic after putting penalty was Long, Long time ago
MICHAEL Long’s career could have been different but he called a penalty on himself when challenging Ernie Els for the 1997 Johnnie Walker Classic.
He accidentally moved the ball while lining up a birdie putt – but after no one noticed, he admitted his trangression to his playing partner before taking two more putts.
Michael Long finished one behind Els at Queensland’s Hope Island after that double bogey.
His most recent was the PGA Tour of Australasia’s 2018 Western Australia PGA Championship.
Long will now look to continue his winning ways in his rookie season against Europe’s best senior golfers.
He joins former US Open winner Michael Campbell on the Staysure as they look to repeat the success of New Zealand legend Bob Charles.
The left-hander won 23 times on the PGA Champions Tour, in the States, including his sole European victory at the 1993 Senior Open, at Royal Lytham.
