Tour round up: Great weeks for McKibbin, Walsh, Byrne and Foley
Lauren Walsh in action in Switzerland. Tristan Jones / LET
DP World Tour
Conor Purcell’s quest to retain his DP World Tour card continues in the FedEx Open de France at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche in Paris.
The Portmarnock man is 155th in the Race to Dubai after failing to get a start in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last week.
Purcell (28) has played 21 events this season and hopes to play everything from here to the Genesis Championship in Korea, after which the top 114 in the Race to Dubai will be fully exempt for next season.
Tom McKibbin’s T11 finish at Wentworth catapulted him to 56th, meaning he’s on track to make the top 70 who play the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship from November 6-9.
Only the top 50 will then qualify for the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai from November 13-16.
Rory McIlroy leads the Race to Dubai in his quest for a seventh Harry Vardon Trophy, but Shane Lowry, who is 151st after playing just six events, said at the Amgen Irish Open that he wouldn’t go chasing his spot in the playoffs.
HotelPlanner Tour
It’s getting close to crunch time for Liam Nolan and Max Kennedy in their quest for DP World Tour cards via the Road to Mallorca standings.
The top 20 after the Rolex Grand Final will earn cards for 2026 and 32-ranked Nolan and 34-ranked Kennedy have work to do after missing the cut in the Open de Portugal last week.
They tee it up this week at the Italian Challenge Open 2025 at Golf Nazionale, Sutri,
Alongside Robert Moran (121st), Dermot McElroy (104th) and Jonathan Caldwell (137th).
The season will come to a head with two €500,000 events in China before heading to Mallorca for the Grand Final.
Nolan and Kennedy are guaranteed their places in China but the other Irish players need big weeks this week to qualify for the Hainan Open from 9-12 October.
DP World Tour Qualifying School
Five First Stage qualifiers have already taken place with only Hugh Foley (at The Players Club) and John Ross Galbraith (at The Northumberland Golf Club) making it to next month’s Second Stage in Spain.
The action continues from today at Arlandastad Golf in Sweden and Donnington Grove in England
First Stage - Arlandastad Golf
John Murphy
First Stage - Donnington Grove Golf Club
Michael Young
Tom Dowdall
Niall Kearney
David Carey
Cormac Sharvin
Paul McBride
Marc Boucher
Alps Tour
The Alps Tour takes a break before the penultimate event of the season, the 2025 Parma Alps Open from 9-11 October.
Last week’s Hauts de France-Pas de Calais Golf Open was reduced to 36 holes due to weather problems.
Hugh Foley, who was leading early in the final round before play was abandoned and the round cancelled, finished second, a shot behind France’s Quentin Debove.
Ronan Mullarney, who tied for 18th in Calais, is fourth in the Order of Merit race for five cards on the HotelPlanner Tour.
Foley moves to 18th, while Robert Moran is 23rd and Michael Young is 60th.
Ladies European Tour
It was a great week for Lauren Walsh and Sara Byrne in the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open
Walsh tied for second, five strokes behind England’s Alice Hewson, who retained her title.
Byrne clinched a career-best tie for fifth while Annabel Wilson was tied 33rd.
Walsh is now ranked 15th in the Order of Merit
Anna Foster is 41st, Byrne 60th, Leona Maguire 68th, Wilson 91st, Canice Screene 139th and Olivia Mehaffey 175th.
The tour moves on to Spain this week for the La Sella Open in Alicante.
Walsh, Foster, Wilson, Byrne, Screene and Olivia Mehaffey tee it up.
LPGA
Leona Maguire returns to action after a short break for the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G
She’s joined by Stephanie Meadow, who is looking to make her first cut since returning from a year-long break.
Meadow has played three events since August, missing the weekend in the Portland Classic and the FM Championship before missing out again last week in the Kroger Women's City Championship, where England’s Charley Hull captured her first win on the LPGA Tour since 2022.
