Tour: McGowan eyes return to the big time at Q-School

Surrey’s Ross McGowan moved to within five shots of the lead at Q-School and and is well positioned to regain his tour card at PGA Catalunya.

The Banstead Downs player was once ranked in the world’s top 50 but has struggled with injury and form over recent years. He is a former European Tour winner, winning the Madrid Masters in 2008.

Only 25 players will earn European Tour cards in two days’ time and with a cut restricting the final 36 holes to the leading 70 players, all eyes were on those in danger of going home from Spain early.

Italy’s Edoardo Molinari eventually scraped through but he has a lot of catching up to do if he wishes to regain his tour card and join brother Francesco back in the big time.

England’s Matthew Nixon only took 30 blows to complete the back 9 to take him to -1 and just the right side of the cut mark.

With all these players coming up, some had to go down.
Sadly household name Nick Dougherty’s struggles continue. He never looked like making the cut and finished the event at +12.
European tour winner Edoardo Molinari made the cut after looking unlikely to throughout the first 3 days play. Former European Tour regulars Joel Sjoholm and Dan Huizing looked to be sailing through to the last stage but with a 77 for Sjoholm and 79 for Huizing they found themselves exiting the competition early.

A trio of players lead the way at this stage in Gavins, Hugo and Hanson at -14 as yesterday’s leaders slipped away into the chasing pack.
New Zealander Ryan Fox fired seven birdies in his round to find himself the right side of the cut mark and just 10 shots from the lead.

The stage is now set for the final two rounds where 78 men will play for 25 places on tour.