Last-chance saloon beckons for Peter Lawrie and Kevin Phelan in Hong Kong

It’s make or break time for those on the wrong end of the Race to Dubai standings this week as the European Tour shifts its focus to Hong Kong for the final full-field event of the season.

Only the top-110 players after Sunday’s final round will receive a European Tour playing card next season. For Peter Lawrie and Kevin Phelan it’s end game.

The two Irish players sit 122nd and 123rd respectively in the Race to Dubai and only a sixth-place finish or better is enough for either to secure full playing privileges for next season.

After missing the cut at last week’s British Masters Peter Lawrie’s hopes looked all but over. But a much-needed olive branch has been extended to the Castleknock man this week, in the form of a sponsor’s invite.

If either or both players were to finish below sixth come Sunday evening a trip to the final stage of the European Tour’s gruelling Qualifying School would be required.

Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell make up the four-strong Irish contingents at the Hong Kong Golf Club.

Harrington also sits outside the top-110 (in 119th place) but his exemptions from Major championship wins in the last 10 years ensure his playing privileges for next season.

Final series

However, both Harrington and McDowell (currently in 67th place) could do with strong finishes to make it into next week’s Turkish Airlines Open – the first event of the European Tour’s final series, leading to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai during the third week of November.

The motives are slightly different this week for Ian Poulter, however. The Englishman had to make a last-minute dash across 12 time zones to play this week, in order to be eligible for next year’s Ryder Cup.

Poulter dropped out of the world’s top 50 on Sunday and was therefore ineligible for his planned appearance in the upcoming WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, meaning he would be unable to play the 13 events required for European Tour membership.

Only members can qualify for Europe’s Ryder Cup team and that meant Poulter was forced into a frantic journey from Orlando to Hong Kong – via New York – but only after former US PGA champion Rich Beem generously agreed to give up his tournament invite to allow Poulter a place in the field.

Poulter set off from Orlando at 9am on Tuesday and arrived shortly after 7pm yesterday in Hong Kong. He is due to start his first round at noon local time today.

The 39-year-old was 33rd in the world rankings on August 10 and 46th at the start of last week, when victories by Emiliano Grillo and Andy Sullivan combined with other results to drop him down to 51st.

“To drop that far in the world rankings was not expected,” Poulter said. “I knew when the cut-off was and I am very good with the rankings and doing the calculations.

“Obviously this wouldn’t have happened if I had played better, but even still, dropping the way I did in the last couple of weeks was drastic. It was an incredible drop.

“It’s really bizarre. It’s put everyone in a bad position and I am just really grateful to everyone for helping me out. It’s down to bad play and poor management of my schedule and neither of those things are good.”