Cort out to secure top spot at Desert Springs

Midland PGA pro Matt Cort will aim to finish the season in style by winning the Matchroom Sport Tour Championship at Desert Springs Resort in Spain.

The €100,000 event brings the curtain down on the HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour season as the year’s top 60 players battle it out to land one of five Challenge Tour cards for 2017.

Beedles Lake pro Cort goes into the event buoyed by making the cut at the British Masters at The Grove last week.

With top-five status already secured, Cort is looking to close out the season at the top of the rankings and achieve the number one spot to  earn a preferable ranking in the satellite tour graduates’ category on next season’s Challenge Tour, as well as the prestigious Order of Merit trophy.

The top five players on the Race To Desert Springs Order of Merit will earn progression to the second-tier Challenge Tour but with £20,000 going to the Tour Championship winner, any one of those in action this week could land promotion.

Jonathan Caldwell won the Clipper Logistics Championship last month and clings on to his place in fifth by a shade over £1,500 to Greg Payne, who has finished second three times this season and knows another strong week could see him move back inside the top five.

Only the top 60 on the Race To Desert Springs were invited to the season finale, with just four players unable to take up the opportunity. The 56 golfers competing will be battling for their share of a £90,000 prize pot, almost twice the purse of a regular event.

The 54-hole Matchroom Sport Tour Championship commences on Wednesday at Desert Springs Resort, Europe’s only international award-winning luxury family resort and championship desert golf course in the Almanzora region of Almeria in south-east Spain. The final round takes place on Friday.

The Indiana Course is framed within a panorama of landmark mountain ranges.

The Matchroom Sport Tour Championship will be filmed for a two-hour highlights package to air on Sky Sports in the UK in November, and on networks worldwide.

Spectator entry is free throughout the tournament and live scoring will be available at www.europrotour.com.