Welsh trio set for final tour qualifier

THREE Welshmen will go in search of a European Tour card at Catalunya in Spain later this month after Liam Bond was the only golfer from Wales to get through the second stage of qualifying.

The 42-year-old St Pierre pro is joined at final qualifying, which runs from November 24-29, by Cardiff’s Stephen Dodd, the former British Amateur champion and three-time winner on the European Tour and Bradley Dredge, twice a winner on the tour.

Dodd, 46, and Dredge, 39, who won the World Cup for Wales in 2005, were exempt from the first two stages of qualifying while Bond not only safely negotiated his way through at Lumine Golf & Beach Club but won the event by three shots having also triumphed at Frilford Heath in phase one.

While Bond was celebrating his second qualifying victory in a matter of weeks, the six other Welshmen in Spain weren’t so fortunate.

Also at Lumine, former Welsh Amateur champion Garry Houston, 41, could only finish in a tie for 62^nd place a full 12 strokes off the last qualifying position. The North Walian carded a 72-hole total of 290 with the back-nine often proving to be his Achilles heel.

Mark Laskey and Matt Dearden were well off the pace at El Valle in Murcia with the former even withdrawing before the start of the final round.

Up to then, rounds of 79, 75 and 70 had taken him to +11 and despite opening his third day with a front-nine of 31, the Welwyn Garden City-born pro decided to give up the ghost.

His compatriot Dearden began with a round of 76 before signing for three successive 71s to come in 55^th on five-over-par, eight off qualification.

But for a poor third round in Valencia, Stuart Manley could well have been joining Bond and Dodd at the PGA Catalunya Resort. A 78 on the penultimate day, including a double bogey and two bogeys on three of the last five holes, did for him.

A four-under 68 on day four couldn’t repair the damage and he missed out by four strokes, finishing on four-over-par 292 as Scotland’s Jamie McLeary won by threat El Saler.

Two of Wales’s emerging talents, Rhys Enoch and James Frazer, both fell short of the mark at Las Colinas in Alicante but they know time is on their side and there’ll be plenty more chances in the years to come.

Like Manley, it was one round that caused most of the problems for Enoch as a 76 on day two, which featured a horrible run of two double bogeys and two bogeys from 14 to 17, set him back. Rounds of 68 and 66 followed to leave Cornwall-based Enoch tied for 30^th on two-under.

Pennard’s Frazer was one stroke back and although he was more consistent with his scoring he couldn’t produce one standout round to soar up the leaderboard. Scores of 70, 71, 73 and 69, however, gave him something to build on in the future.

Six rounds of golf now stand between Bond, Dodd and Dredge from a place among Europe’s elite next year. But, as Bond knows all too well, it won’t be easy, especially so given the standard of player the pair will be up against.

The likes of former Ryder Cup players Oliver Wilson, Paul Broadhurst and Jarmo Sandelin are also involved as is Phillip Archer, Markus Brier, Nick Dougherty, Steve Webster and Gary Orr.