Australia’s Scott Hend did not know it at the time but his 72nd hole birdie at the Nedbank Challenge was good enough to secure the 50th and very last place into this week’s ultra-lucrative European Tour season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
Hend, 46 teed-up at Sun City lying 46th on the Race to Dubai rankings but must have been thinking the worst after opening rounds of 77 and 73 but then the Queensland-born golfer was surely grateful for the ‘no cut’ format in place in South Africa.
Scott Hend points the way with the 2019 Maybank Championship winner now heading to the DP Tour World Championship
He went out on day three to post a two-under par 70.
Sunday dawned and with Hend teeing-off from the 10th and started strongly with birdies on his opening two holes before his quest to be aboard the special late Sunday departing charter flight out of Johannesburg to Dubai looking very suspect when he dropped five shots in a three-hole run from his ninth hole to the 10th hole of his round.
Hend bogeyed the 17th on the scorecard, doubled the 18th and then also doubled the 1st hole.
But with long-time coach and caddy Tony Carolan on the bag, the pair steadied to birdie the second or their 11th but were then looking like an end to their European Tour year with a bogey at the 4th hole or the 13th of Hend’s round.
And to add to the drama of Hend’s round, he rolled-in a birdie putt on his final hole in a six-over par total and a share of 48th place.
There probably has been more important birdies in Hend’s 15-tournament winning career but then in season 2019 there might be none that could prove as lucrative as Hend now tees-up in the UAE and facing the chance to win what will now be the richest first prize cheque in all of golf – a cool $US3m first prize cheque.
The reigning Maybank Championship winner secured his place in the 11th staging of the DP World Tour Championship by just 3.8 of a Race to Dubai ranking point.
Perth’s Jason Schrivener making his way to a maiden DP World Tour Championship after an equal-best European Tour finish of T3rd at the Nedbank Challenge
Joining Hend on the special flight bound for Dubai was fellow Aussie Jason Schrivener who brilliantly muscled his way into the Race to Dubai finale thanks to a Nedbank Challenge fighting final day of 70 to secure a share of third place. It was Shrivener’s second third this year and earned the young Aussie the biggest prize cheque of his career – Euro 343,555
The effort has taken the 30-year old Perth golfer’s earnings this year to around Euro 83,000 shy of the Euro 1m mark and in a fifth full year on the European Tour.
He’s currently ranked 35th on the Race to Dubai and will be making his DP World Tour Championship debut.
