Currently second on the European Tour’s season-long Race to Dubai points list, Horschel has ambitions to become the first American to break that Old World tape.
In order to maintain the performance targets set at the start of the season, the tour will recognise a new top 110 from the Race to Dubai and a new top 20 from the Challenge Tour.
Seven days on from winning last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship, the 26-year-old South African added his national title to an already burgeoning resume with victory in the South African Open at Sun City.
Although he admitted to struggling with the rhythm of his swing over the course of the final round, the now five-time European Tour champion gave what was generally a near-textbook example of how to play with a lead.
A solo second-place finish at the tournament was worth $US828,000, but because you had to add the prizemoney for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth places, then divide the aggregate among the five players, the amount was diluted.
For the first time on the European Tour since 2003, there were six starters in a sudden-death – and ultimately floodlit – playoff for the Turkish Airlines Open title.
“European No.1” might be a nice moniker to own, but it doesn’t appear as if too many members of the tour’s elite are prepared to labour in its pursuit.
Bernd Wiesberger’s comeback from wrist surgery had already qualified as a success, but in the wake of his victory in the Italian Open overnight he could add remarkable to its description.
Australian Golf Digest
