Erik van Rooyen is one of just a few Challenge Tour players to make it into the field for this week’s D+D REAL Czech Masters in Prague this week, and he will be keen to use the opportunity to climb in the rankings for the Road to Oman.
Van Rooyen, who won the 2017 Eye of Africa PGA Championship in February for his maiden Sunshine Tour title in a three-way play-off with Makhetha Mazibuko and Dylan Frittelli, is currently in 29th position on the Road to Oman rankings, outside the top 15 who will automatically qualify for their European Tour cards for next year after the season finale at the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final in Oman on November 1.
With eight regular-season Challenge Tour events left ahead of Oman, Van Rooyen will be looking for every opportunity to play himself into that top 15 and get himself onto the European Tour without having to go through the agony of the Qualifying School route.
He finished in 10th spot in the weekend’s Rolex Trophy in Geneva, five shots out of the play-off between Pedro Oriol of Spain and Adrien Saddier of France. It was his third top-10 of the season, with his best finish coming in the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge last month.
While those top-10s have kept him in the upper reaches of the Road to Oman listings, he needs a spark to get him inside the top 15, and an event that counts for both the European Tour and the Challenge Tour, as the D+D REAL Czech Masters does, is just the ticket. He will be playing for a total prize purse of €1-million, as opposed to the €210,000 the other Challenge Tour players will be playing for in the Cordon Golf Open in France.
Also in the field in Prague is Zander Lombard, who is 48th on the Road to Oman rankings, outside the top 40 who get to play in Oman, and well away from the top 15. He is also 111th in the Race to Dubai, so playing well in Prague can help him on both fronts.
There are seven other South Africans in the field in Prague: Dylan Frittelli, Dean Burmester, Peter Karmis, Justin Walters, Jaco Ahlers, Jbe’ Kruger and Keith Horne.
