Golfer James Morrison can now withdraw his job application at Waitrose after securing a DP World Tour card. The 40-year-old had already decided to try a different type of career if he didn’t rank highly enough at the end of the Rolex Grand Final.
Morrison was the most senior player competing at the Rolex Grand final in Mallorca over the weekend, marking the end of the HotelPlanner Tour season. The English golfer went into the tournament ranked 36th and needed to finish in the top four in Spain to secure one of the 20 available tour cards. Entering the final round, Morrison was leading by three shots. His experience came to the fore on Sunday as he scored a round of 70, maintaining his lead and clinching the Rolex Grand Final with a 15-under-par finish. A second victory of the season propelled Morrison to sixth place in the overall rankings, earning him his DP World Tour card, where he will compete against star names like Rory McIlroy. However, earning a tour card was well beyond Morrison’s expectations.
Morrison arrived at the Rolex Grand Final without a caddie, instead being assisted by his 13-year-old son Finley. The experienced golfer confessed that he had almost resigned himself to ending his sporting career, but will now have to gear up for the next season on the DP World Tour.
“It will take a lot of time to sink in,” Morrison told The Scotsman. “Yeah, it’s funny that all week I had that attitude of ‘right, this could be the last one and I don’t really care’.
“But then this morning I started to care a little bit and I was like ‘hang on a minute, this is not where I want to be’. I just tried to dig into the memory bank of years gone by and managed to do that.”
When questioned about his potential schedule for next season, Morrison added: “I don’t know. I haven’t got a caddie. I haven’t got a tour bag, nothing. I can cancel my email to Waitrose applying for a job. But we’ll have to wait and see.”
Morrison previously secured two victories on the European Tour at the 2010 Madeira Islands Open and 2015 Open de Espana. However, it seems unlikely that any win meant as much as his most recent triumph, with son Finley by his side.
“He did great,” Morrison said of his son’s work as a caddie. “I holed a birdie putt on 11 and he let out a massive sigh. I was like ‘you nervous mate’ and he said ‘not really’ but I think he was feeling, as we all were.
“He did great and giving him a hug on the 18th green was the most special thing in the world.”
Following the victory, Scottish golfer David Law, who finished second in the season standings, assisted Finley with removing the flag on the 18th hole. Law was among three Scottish golfers to secure DP World Tour cards at the end of the HotelPlanner Tour season.
Daniel Young and Euan Walker have secured their tour cards after finishing 11th and 14th, respectively, in the final rankings. English golfer Joshua Berry will also join them on the DP World Tour, having ended the season in 13th place.
