Tom Gandy secured his place in the PGA Europro Tour by finishing joint 12th in the qualifying school at Frilford Heath Golf Club, Oxon last week.

This is a tremendous achievement for the Rowany man and a great first step on the professional golf ladder for him.

By finishing in the top 30, with a four under par score, he has earned Category 3 card, giving him full playing rights on the Europro Tour this year.

The Tour will get underway at Frilford Heath with the Matchroom Sport Championship between May 16 and 18.

The journey to succeed in achieving his card started with first qualifying at Caversham Heath Golf Club on March 28-29. Gandy’s two-round total of one under par was good enough to give him fifth place overall out of 83 competitors, 38 of whom would qualify.

Fellow Isle of Man golfer Tom Harris also qualified for the final stage by competing as an amateur at Formby Hall and his two rounds of +4 were good enough for a joint 19th place out of the 43 qualifiers.

Those players who progress to final stage qualifying earn at least a Category 14, which give some playing rights on the Tour, but achieving full playing rights was the goal for both Toms.

For the final stages at Frilford Heath, the recent rain made conditions a little tricky, but both were two of 240 golfers to play one round on each of the red and blue courses, before a cut of the leading 80 players and ties was made (+2 and better) who played a final round on the blue course.

The cut fell three shots too low for Harris who finished +5 for the first two rounds, therefore he missed out this time. But his time will come again soon and Isle of Man Golf wish him all success for the future.

Gandy’s scores after the first two rounds of 68 and 70 (-6) saw him in second place, two shots behind the eventual winner, Jack Davidson, who went on to card a five-under-par 67 in the final round, including a hole-in-one.

Gandy’s final round of 74 was good enough for joint 12th place, which also meant he was in the prize money which is always a bonus.

His plan was to go to qualifying school and earn his card to play on the the HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour this year, therefore he has achieved this.

His hard work, determination and more importantly a belief in his ability as a golfer to improve and succeed are the qualities needed to step further forward in Gandy’s journey to play professional golf at the highest level.

Geoff Skillicorn