Alps Tour Grand Final concludes 2018 season

Rising golf stars of the Alps Tour are heading this week to Lake Maggiore (Italy) for the culmination of the 2018 season, the Alps Tour Grand Final. 

The top 50 players of the Order of Merit, the Alps Tour official season ranking, will compete against each other starting this Thursday to determine the overall winner of the 2018 season. 

On top of being in the top 50 following the last tournament of the regular season (the Abruzzo Open), players must also have played in at least 6 tournaments in 3 different countries this season to be able to take part in the Grand Final. 

At the end of this week’s Grand Final, the top 5 of the ranking will take a full category on the Challenge Tour next year. As an amateur, Adria Arnaus won the 2017 Grand Final and finished first in the Order of Merit. Arnaus is currently ranked 9th overall on the Challenge Tour and will play on the European Tour next season. 

Santiago Tarrio, the leader of the Order of Merit with 26,702.45 points, will not participate in this week’s Grand Final as he’s been invited to play in the European Tour’s Valderrama Masters in Spain. « I’m sad not to be able to play in the Grand Final. I like the course very much and I feel very welcomed there. But there are tournaments I can’t turn down » Tarrio said.      

«  I can’t wait to start playing on a course where I have played well there twice finishing tied for 6th (Des Iles Borromées Open 2018) and tied for 9th place (Grand Final 2017) » England’s Marcus Mohr, who is ranked in 4th place in the Order of Merit, said. «  I said at the start of the year that I wanted to give myself a chance and I have » he continued. «  I will be nervous and excited when the Grand Final starts on Thursday but I know that if I play my game, I will come out where I deserve to be at the end of the week » Mohr concluded. 

«  I just want to end the season with the same state of mind I’ve had all year long, that is determined and at the same time serene » Frenchman Xavier Poncelet said. Poncelet is ranked 5th in the Order of Merit but is closely followed by David Borda (ESP) who is 133,44 points behind him.  

The €45,000 prize money tournament will be played over 72 holes of traditional stroke. But because it is the Grand Final, 70 000 points will be distributed to give the opportunity to players not in the top positions of the Order of Merit to jump in the top 5 with this last tournament. The winner of the Grand Final will get 11,000 points while the runner up will grab 7,000 points. 

This is the second year in a row the Golf Des Iles Borromées is hosting the Grand Final. It is also the second time this season the Alps Tour makes a stop at the Golf Des Iles Borromées after a tournament played there at the end of July. 

The Golf Des Iles Borromées, a 18-hole par 71 golf course located 500 meters above sea level, is surrounded by beautiful nature and an exceptional flora. The course has spectacular views of the Swiss Alps and of the Ticino Plain. From the 18th tee, one can see the skyline of Milan and four lakes: Lake Maggiore, Lake Varese, Lake Monate and Lake Comabbio. The Golf club is also the home of a very dynamic junior school managed by a former player of the Alps Tour, Federico Colombo.