Bradley Neil endured a nightmare wait that ended in joy as he secured European Tour qualification for 2018 from the Challenge Tour’s NBO Grand Final in Oman.
The 21-year-old from Blairgowrie, Amateur champion in 2014, was in a projected 18th position in the Challenge Tour Road to Oman rankings going into the final round at the Al Mouj club, with only the top 15 getting playing cards for next season’s European Tour.
He had come into the final event in 16th place, having fallen out of the top 15 for the first time since mid-July only the previous week.
Bradley’s final round three-under 69 for an eight-under total of 280 left him excruciatingly on the edge with a projected final place of 15th, needing to wait for over an hour until the field had finished to discover his fate.
Eventually the pieces fell into place, and Bradley’s score was good enough for a share of ninth place on the day – just enough to leapfrog Germany’s Sebastien Heisele and France’s Robin Scott-Siegrist and claim the 15th and final card available.
“I was actually pretty excited today,” he said at the end of it all. “After going out in three under, it was actually in my hands, I wasn’t having to shoot an amazing back nine and I was playing well.
“It was really tough to focus on my game and I had to be really strong mentally to focus on what I had to do.
“It’s been a long, long season and it was horrible to come into the week in 16th place and be unable to relax, but it was worth it now.”
It had been an exceptionally nervy final day, following on from the third round on Friday when Bradley got himself into an exceptionally strong position only to falter with a double bogey seven on the long 16th hole.
That dropped him from inside the projected top 15 to 18th, but three birdies on the outward nine in the final round pushed him back into the qualifiers.
That wasn’t to be the end of the frayed nerves, however, as three birdies and three matching bogeys on the way home meant he didn’t improve his position, although when finished he knew he was in 15th place that neither Heisele or Scott-Seigrist could get past him.
Bradley was eventually confirmed as the 15th qualifier on €93,168, opening the door to the European Tour after just one full season on the satellite circuit.
“After I bogeyed 17, I didn’t really know what to expect coming up the last or where I was standing. I didn’t have a clue what was going on and I was just delighted when that last putt dropped,” he added.
The Blairgowrie Golf Club member first came to prominence as a junior in Perthshire winning the Scottish Boys title at Monifieth in 2013. Just over a year later, he won the Amateur at Royal Portrush defeating Zander Lombard 2 and 1 in the final.
He played in the Open at Hoylake, the Masters at Augusta and the US Open at Chambers Bay as a result of his Amateur victory and turned professional after his US Open appearance in June of 2015.
However he had only limited playing rights for the Challenge Tour and was struggling for form until almost exactly a year ago, when he won a Stage 2 tournament of the European Q School and went on to play all six rounds of the Q School Final.
He didn’t get his card there but reaching the final day secured full Challenge Tour rights for the 2017 season, and this season he has focused entirely on that circuit, playing in 22 events from Aviemore to China.
Two second place finish in successive weeks in the Czech Republic and Italy in July set him up for qualification. He completed the season with five top ten finishes and just enough points to secure a full card for the European Tour in 2018.
There’s precious little time for celebration, however, as the 2018 season opens in Hong Kong in just three weeks’ time, although it’s likely Bradley’s first opportunity will be at the Australian PGA Championship or the Mauritius Open the following week.
