Murphy rues Aussie trip as tour card lost

GARY MURPHY has been left to count the cost of a 30,000km round trip to Australia after failing to retain his Tour card for the 2010 Race to Dubai season.

Despite a gallant four-round effort, Murphy’s 37th-place finish in the Australian Masters, won by Tiger Woods, left him four places, and €25,943, shy of finishing among the 120 players who retain automatic Tour membership.

Murphy, who carded a final round 74 for a two-over par tally on the Kingston Heath course, is resigned to heading back to the Tour’s Q-School later this month for the first time in seven years. He said: “People might say it was a long way to come in the hope of keeping my card but I have had a fantastic week apart from doing what I set out to do. The weather and the Tiger Woods factor were fantastic this week. I have never seen crowds like this anywhere around the world except for the Open Championship.”

Murphy began the week 12 spots outside the top 115 players on the Race To Dubai money list who keep their tickets for 2010 however that moved out to 120 when a number of ‘affiliate members’ were included.

“It was a great day today,” Woods, wearing the tournament’s gold jacket, told reporters after a five-birdie one-bogey round that was followed by a large share of the 25,000 spectators at Kingston Heath.

“Now I’ve won on every continent which is nice, except for Antarctica... To have won on every playable continent is something I’ve always wanted to do, and now I’ve done that.”

Woods received a winner’s cheque for A$270,000 (€168,000), less than a 10th of the A$3m (€1.9m) appearance fee paid up between organisers and the state government.