David Drysdale sets sights on ‘Final Series’

DAVID Drysdale will take a dip in the North Sea today feeling hopeful he can make it to the start line in the European Tour’s lucrative “Final Series” instead of fearing for his future on the circuit.

Scotland's David Drysdale. Picture: Jane Barlow

Just over a week after being on crutches due to a fall in the Italian Open that left him with a nasty calf muscle tear, the 40-year-old from Cockburnspath finished as top Scot in joint-ninth in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

A closing 68 for a 14-under-par total of 274 earned Drysdale a £61,215 pay-day, securing his card for next season in the process as he jumped 25 spots to 96th in the Race to Dubai.

“It was a good round today and a good week overall,” admitted Drysdale, who had physiotherapist Stuart Barton to thank for getting him fit for the event through daily treatment and twice daily dips in the North Sea at Pease Bay.

“In the middle of last week I was seriously thinking that was me out for the rest of the year and I actually phoned David Garland [the European Tour’s director of operations] to see where I stood.

“There was a chance I could have been heading back to the Tour School, which is not somewhere you want to be but, if you want to play professional golf, sometimes that’s where you have to go and I have been a few times myself before. But now, if I can keep playing like this, there’s no reason why I can’t give myself a chance of getting to Turkey [where the first of the four “Final Series” events takes place at the end of the month] by climbing into the top 75 on the money-list.”

Stephen Gallacher closed with a 69 to finish joint-19th – his best finish since he was third in Dubai in February. “My game still isn’t 100 per cent, but that was a big improvement,” he said.