The Rolex Grand Final

The Rolex Grand Final took place at the stunning Club de Golf Alcanada in Mallorca over the weekend to mark the season end of the Challenge Tour. 40-year-old Englishman James Morrison claimed an unexpected win when he reached 15-under-par to finish 3 strokes ahead of Italian Stefano Mazzoli.

Morrison was in 7^th place along with three other players come the end of the Saturday, but shot into the lead on the Sunday when he carded a flawless 7-under round of 65 to place him 2 shots ahead of Euan Walker and Daniel Van Tonder. He then had a somewhat up and down Sunday but despite closing on a bogey, he stayed ahead of his competition to secure the title.

The win was a very happy surprise for Morrison as he fully expected to hang up his clubs after this event “When I said this was going to be my last event, it really was going to be 100 percent. This has completely messed that up. I’m glad it’s over with. I played nicely all week. Didn’t play as well today but managed my emotions and dug into my memory bank with my wins on the DP World Tour.”

Morrison has already achieved 2 wins on the DP World Tour, both the Madeira Island Open in 2010 and the Open de España in 2015. The Englishman has previously spent 15 years on the DP World Tour before failing to qualify and losing his tour card last season. His dramatic win this weekend has propelled him upwards in the developmental tour’s points list and guaranteed him a spot on the DP World Tour next season.

He admitted his attitude was never set on going after the trophy, but as he continued to play well, he would draw on his recollection of previous wins to get him in the right mindset “It’s funny that all week I had that attitude of ‘right, this could be the last one and I don’t really care. But then this morning I started to care a little bit and I was like ‘hang on a minute, this is not where I want to be’. I just tried to dig into the memory bank of years gone by and managed to do that.”

Despite 3-putting on the final green, James Morrison had something of a fairy-tale victory being able to immediately celebrate with his son who had been caddying for him all tournament “I holed a birdie putt on 11 and he let out a massive sigh. I was like ‘you nervous mate’ and he said ‘not really’ but I think he was feeling, as we all were. He did great and giving him a hug on the 18^th green was the most special thing in the world.”

It goes to show the moral of the story is never to doubt what you might be able to achieve on the golf course if you put your mind to it! As we all know, golf is an exceptionally mental game, so if you feel you’d benefit from some lessons to give yourself a confidence boost, we’re available in the pro shop to get you some booked in.