Hurley and Murphy clinch DP World Tour cards in Spain
Gary Hurley. Picture: Federico Capretti/ Alps Tour Golf.
A year might be a long time in politics but it’s an eternity in golf as West Waterford’s Gary Hurley and Kinsale’s John Murphy showed by putting testing moments behind them to come through the gruelling 108-hole Qualifying School Final Stage and claim their DP World Tour cards in Spain.
Hurley has spoken openly about his mental struggles with the game since he turned professional after the 2015 Walker Cup.
He was on the verge of quitting the game a few years ago and was breaking down in tears as he worked through his issues on the course with Cork-based performance coach Dr Edward Coughlan.
But less than 12 months after finding himself with no status on any tour, even a third-tier tour, he closed with a pressure-packed two-under 69 on the Lakes Course at Infinitum in Tarragona to finish two strokes inside the top 25 and ties in joint 13th on 19-under par.
“I'm proud, I'm excited,” said Hurley, who combined the mental game improvements he’s made with Coughlan with work with coach Neil Manchip and practice tips from clubmate Séamus Power to make the jump from the doldrums to the world’s second-biggest tour.
“Even this time last year, I had no sponsors, I had nothing and I managed to convince some guys to help me out over the winter, convince them that this was going somewhere and that the work I was putting in, it's going to mean something.
“And I'm so so thankful for them for that even when I was telling them. I now just have a lot of evidence this year with my results. And now this just I mean, it's brilliant. I'm delighted. I am absolutely delighted.”
With his Challenge Tour card secured thanks to his top 5 finish on the Alps Tour rankings this year, Hurley shot rounds of 70, 65, 70, 65 and 70 to start the day two shots inside the top 25.
But after following birdies at the third, fifth and 11th with back-to-back bogeys at the 12th and 13th, he was right on the qualifying mark with five holes to go and holed a bunker shot for a two at the 14th before parring his way home.
“I was so assertive on that bunker shot,” Hurley said. “I was almost trying to hole it, but not forcing it, just allowing it to happen. All day I was just really in it and accountable to the process.
“I was absolutely brilliant today (mentally), and I'm so proud of myself the way I handled it and how I chose to be me. I didn't allow everything to turn me into something else something that it would have done before.
“I just chose to be me today and I chose to go after the process of what I'm doing, which is very difficult when there's a lot of noise but I'm really really proud of how I how I fought all the emotions and all the stuff that's with it and just allowed myself to play.”
Hurley’s resurrection from nowhere man to European Tour player alongside clubmate Séamus Power and Major winners Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry is one of the great feel-good Irish golfing stories of recent years.
John Murphy in action during the Rolex Callenge Tour Grand Final at Alcanada Golf Club in Mallorca. Picture: Niall O'Shea
But it was equally memorable day for 24-year-old Murphy, who was ranked 92nd on the Challenge Tour in July and unsure of his status until he finished third in the Irish Challenge at The K Club and never looked back.
Having already secured his Challenge Tour card for 2023 (and a place at the Final Stage of Q-School) by finishing 44th in the Challenge Tour rankings, the Kinsale man found himself four shots outside the top 25 and ties heading into the final round.
Six opening pars left him six strokes outside the mark, but he blitzed the last 12 holes in six-under, carding a bogey-free six-under 65 to grab his card on the 17-under par limit, making 26 birdies over the six rounds in Tarragona.
After making birdies at the par-five 16th and 18th to turn in two-under, he roared home on four-under 31, knocking in a key nine-footer for birdie at his 17th to get inside the top 25 before two-putting over a ridge from 50 feet at the last for a card-clinching par.
“It's mad, to be honest,” Murphy said “It’s just one of those things that no matter how much you dream it, you're never sure if it's going to happen. And you know, I obviously have full faith in myself that I was going to be on the DP World Tour at some point. But I certainly didn't think it would happen this quick and just yeah, really excited and looking forward to it to start in that journey.”
As for his finish, he said it was the result of a lot of hard work.
“You know, I trained for moments like this,” said the Cork man, who was grateful to mental coach Fergus Wallace and even more pleased for his swing coach Ian Stafford, who has been dealing with family-related issues.”
He added: “The par on the last was a bit certainly a bit shaky. But we managed to get in the hole in four shots and yeah, I’m just relieved more than anything. The flag was on the left side of the green up over a ridge and I was on the very right fringe 50 feet away. So yeah, it certainly wasn't the easiest two-putt but it was nice to see a roll up there to three feet from the hole and they see that three-footer go in.”
Like Hurley, Murphy has worked hard on his mental game and he pointed to patience as key as he had to wait until the 107th hole of the 108-hole marathon to get himself into the top 25.
“Patience was everything for me,” Murphy said. “I really felt like I was mentally and physically prepared for the moment and I am just delighted to see it come to fruition.”
As for his coach, he said: “He’s going through a bit of a tough time himself at the moment, just with some family-related issues. I really wanted to do this for him more than anything. “He’s instilled a lot of confidence in me from when I was young and probably didn't even have a lot of confidence in myself. So I’m just very happy to be able to do this for him and to put a smile on his face back at home.”
Sweden’s Simon Forsstrom topped the leaderboard, closing with a three-under 68 to win by two strokes from France’s David Ravetto on 29-under par as 28 players secured their cards for the 2023 season which begins in South Africa and Australia next week.
Hurley is taking time off but Murphy plans to play next week’s Joburg Open at Houghton, where Challenge Tour graduate Tom McKibbin will make his debut as a full card holder.
Final Stage Qualifiers
Simon Forsström
David Ravetto
Daniel Brown
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
Alejandro Del Rey
Nick Bachem
Pedro Figueiredo
Christoffer Bring
John Axelsen
Ryo Hisatsune
Tobias Edén
Joël Stalter
Mike Lorenzo-Vera
Marcel Siem
Joshua Lee
Gary Hurley
Gunner Wiebe
Sam Hutsby
Gary Stal
Gudmundur Kristjansson
David Horsey
Jens Fahrbring
Niklas Lemke
Andrew Wilson
Ricardo Santos
Garrick Porteous
John Murphy
Adrien Saddier
Final Scores:
399 S Forsstrom (Swe) 66 69 65 65 66 68
401 D Ravetto (Fra) 67 69 72 64 65 64
402 D Brown (Eng) 67 67 68 65 66 69
403 K Aphibarnrat (Tha) 69 64 73 62 67 68
404 A Del Rey (Esp) 69 68 68 68 68 63
405 N Bachem (Ger) 76 61 69 65 68 66
406 R Hisatsune (Jpn) 66 69 72 65 66 68, C Bring (Den) 71 68 72 61 65 69, J Axelsen (Den) 72 63 67 69 66 69, P Figueiredo (Por) 69 67 70 65 64 71
407 T Eden (Swe) 76 68 61 67 66 69
408 J Stalter (Fra) 68 68 69 63 71 69
409 S Hutsby (Eng) 71 67 66 70 67 68, G Wiebe (USA) 73 64 71 66 66 69, Gary Hurley (Irl) 70 65 70 65 70 69, J Lee (USA) 71 69 70 62 67 70, M Lorenzo-vera (Fra) 66 73 70 64 65 71, M Siem (Ger) 69 72 67 64 66 71
410 J Fahrbring (Swe) 71 68 71 65 69 66, D Horsey (Eng) 70 70 69 65 68 68, G Kristjansson (Isl) 70 64 73 66 67 70, G Stal (Fra) 72 69 67 65 66 71
411 John Murphy (Irl) 68 69 73 67 69 65, A Saddier (Fra) 71 69 70 68 66 67, G Porteous (Eng) 71 66 70 67 69 68, A Wilson (Eng) 70 69 71 67 65 69, R Santos (Por) 73 67 67 67 68 69, N Lemke (Swe) 72 66 65 66 71 71
<<Top 25 and ties>>
412 R Paratore (Ita) 70 69 67 68 74 64, O Farr (Wal) 73 72 67 68 65 67, N Kristensen (Den) 67 71 69 65 72 68
413 R McGowan (Eng) 68 66 75 68 67 69, O Farrell (Eng) 75 68 65 72 62 71, E Bertheussen (Nor) 71 69 66 68 67 72
414 C Mivis (Bel) 76 67 69 69 68 65, T Murray (Eng) 72 70 71 66 68 67 J Prinsloo (RSA) 70 69 68 71 69 67, T Kanaya (Jpn) 70 75 67 69 64 69, H Sturehed (Swe) 73 72 68 67 65 69, M Schmitt (Ger) 70 72 72 64 67 69, M Penge (Eng) 69 68 69 68 69 71, L Scalise (Ita) 72 67 69 67 66 73
415 F Aguilar (Chi) 69 71 72 69 67 67, T Lewis (Eng) 73 66 73 66 70 67, P Sagoo (Eng) 74 67 71 67 68 68, D O'Loughlin (Eng) 66 72 69 71 69 68, S Bairstow (Eng) 72 68 70 70 66 69, C Wood (Eng) 72 69 68 70, M Elvira (Esp) 68 71 66 70 70 70, C Berardo (Fra) 70 70 70 68 66 71
416 B Poke (Den) 71 65 74 68 71 67, C Paisley (Eng) 72 69 73 66 68 68, M Gradecki (Pol) 75 66 75 65 66 69, J Zunic (Aus) 69 70 75 66 67 69, C Barrow (Am) (Eng) 68 67 73 70 68 70
417 D Ackerman (USA) 71 72 67 70 72 65, C Howie (Sco) 73 69 68 68 70 69, V Meyer (Ger) 66 71 73 65 73 69, Y Liu (Chn) 74 72 67 67 67 70, U Coussaud (Fra) 69 67 72 66 72 71, B Rusch (Sui) 68 73 69 66 67 74
418 A Cañizares (Esp) 68 71 73 65 72 69, J Felton (Aus) 72 68 72 67 69 70, M Antcliff (Aus) 74 68 68 67 69 72
419 D Papadatos (Aus) 74 68 69 69 70 69
422 L Johnston (Sco) 68 70 70 72 70 72, K Davidse (RSA) 71 74 66 69 67 75
423 G Boyd (Eng) 74 69 65 72 72 71, M Lundberg (Swe) 72 70 70 67 70 74
424 O Fisher (Eng) 73 69 71 68 70 73.
