Browne’s late charge earns him Tour spot

IRELAND will have a minimum of ten players on next season’s European Tour.

The already well established Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane and Gary Murphy were joined at the weekend by Michael Hoey, David Higgins and Stephen Browne, the latter trio having graduated through the Challenge Tour. Hoey and Higgins were guaranteed their places for quite a while but Browne’s sixth place in the Grand Final in Italy moved him from 24th to 19th in the Order of Merit. The top 20 win Tour cards for 2006.

Hoey (8th) and Higgins (12th) owe their status to a great start to the year whereas Browne was a late bloomer, making huge progress with victory in the Kazakhstan Open before recovering valiantly from an opening 75 to scorch through the field in Italy with 65, 68 and 69 and an 11 under par total of 277. He now heads off for Florida later this week to play and practice under the guidance of his coach Jimmy Ballard.