Sam Horsfield earns European Tour card for first time

18 November 2017 09:54

England's Sam Horsfield completed a dominant display at the European Tour Qualifying School final stage to earn his card for the first time.

The 21-year-old, who was tipped for the top by Ryder Cup star Ian Poulter when he qualified for the US Open as an amateur two years ago, shot a closing 63 over Lumine Golf Club's Lakes Course to win by eight shots on 27 under par.

Poulter soon took to Twitter to congratulate his compatriot, writing: "I'm extremely impressed just like I was 7 years ago with this young man @hr59sam. @EuropeanTour School is a daunting week. Many congratulations to now being employed and I hope you enjoy the new job. May you have a long and successful career mate."

Horsfield's round was the lowest of his professional career, and after earning a place on the 2018 Race to Dubai following the gruelling six-round event in Spain, he said: "All these experiences add up.

"Hopefully I will have the opportunity to one day win on the European Tour or the PGA Tour and I can look back on days like today where I came out here and shot 63 in the final round, while having a lead, which is something that you can't teach and you have to learn by putting yourself in these positions.

"I am not sure I can say I envisaged being here when I first started this journey at First Stage, but I feel as though my game has been good for a while and it really came together this week."

Another Englishman, Charlie Ford, was part of a six-way tie for second, as was Danish veteran Anders Hansen.

The 47-year-old Hansen retired at the end of the 2015 season and has no plans to return to the tour full time, despite earning his card.

"It is a really cool feeling to get my card back," said the three-time European Tour winner. "It was a very tough week and 108 holes is a lot of golf - especially someone like me who hasn't played a lot of golf recently.

"I am a bit older than all these guys so I am not sure what happens next, but I don't think I'll be restarting my career again. The plan now is to go home and find out what the plan is."

In total 33 players secured their playing privileges, with former European Tour winners Mark Foster, Kristoffer Broberg, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Felipe Aguilar among them.

England's Tom Lewis, who won on his third professional start in 2011, missed out after a closing 70.

Source: PA