Irish duo battle for place on Tour

WATERVILLE’S David Higgins and Athlone’s Colm Moriarty are continuing their steady progress towards claiming places on the regular European Tour in 2008.

A share of 10th place in the Scandinavian Masters in Stockholm at the weekend has moved Higgins up to 156th in the order of merit with a total of €115,192 to his credit. In all probability, that still leaves him €100,000 short of the amount he needs to get among the 115 players who earn cards for next year and he will hope to narrow that gap still further when he tees it up in the €1.6million KLM Dutch Open starting at Kennemar today.

Furthermore, Higgins could yet make his way back to the big time through the European Challenge Tour. He has been playing both circuits throughout the year and a recent third place finish in the Scottish Challenge bumped him up to 46th place in the rankings in the secondary flight. The top 20 qualify for the main tour in ‘08 so the 34 year-old Waterville golfer must now figure out which is the better route as he tries to avoid a return to the Tour School at San Roque.