PREVIEW FROM EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS
Duncan Stewart is chasing The European Tour dream this week
as the Scot enters the European
Challenge Tour's season-ending
Dubai Festival City Challenge
Tour Grand Final hosted by Al
Badia Golf Club in need of a
strong finish to claim one of the
15 cards available.
The cream of the 2013 Challenge
Tour crop descend upon the
splendid Al Badia Golf Club by InterContinental this week as they
battle it out to finish top 15 in the Rankings and seal graduation to
The 2014 Race to Dubai.
While everybody in the field has a chance of achieving the feat this
week, including compatriots Andrew McArthur and Jamie
McLeary, Stewart is one of those within touching distance as he sits
two places outside the cut-off point in 17th - the highest-placed Scot.
The Grantown-on-Spey man is relishing the challenge, and is
just hoping he can put his fate in his own hands and not have to
worry about the performance of others around him in the
Rankings.
"It might depend on what other people do," said the 29 year
old who played alongside Russell Knox on the US college circuit for
four successful years as a student at Jacksonville University, Florida.
"But I would say I need to finish top six or seven to have a
chance. It's not going to be easy because you've got 44 players out
there who have been playing well all year, so I'd imagine the
scoring will be quite good but if I can go out there and just be in
contention and treat it like just another week, hopefully at the end it
will be enough.
"I probably know the course better than anybody else that's played
it because I've played here eight times before I even arrived this
week. I played two mini-tour events here in the past year and one of
those was just a few weeks ago.
"I know the course and I've played in all kind of conditions so I've
got a slight advantage there. I just have to go out and play well.
"You never know in this game, you just have to see what happens
but I'm playing well. I played really well the first day last week but I
was disappointed with the weekend.
"There's no reason why I can't go out here this week and get a high
finish. The goal for me for most of the season was just to get this
tournament but obviously after Kazakhstan the goals shifted slightly.
I'll be disappointed if I don't finish top 15 but in the bigger
picture, it's been a really good season.
"A win is all that's lacking this year to be honest and that's the
hardest thing to do out here. There are not many guys have won but
I just need to see how things go this week."
Italian Andrea Pavan, a former winner of the Grand Final, sits atop
the Rankings heading into the season-ender, but he will not be
sitting easy as a number of ambitious young guns and experienced
older heads attempt to steal his thunder and finish top of the pile.
Published by scottishgolfview.com