After playing on the DP World Tour for fifteen consecutive seasons before losing his card last season, the 40-year-old Morrison entered this week’s HotelPlanner Tour final, the Rolex Grand Final, six places outside the points barrier, for at least a conditional return to the main European circuit. He needed a nice week in Mallorca, Spain, otherwise there was little chance he would grind in the minors for another year.
“That was 100% going to be my last event, and this has completely ruined it,” an emotional Morrison said on Sunday afternoon after his convincing three-shot win took him all the way to sixth in the Development Tour points race.
With the top 20 players having secured full DP World Tour cards for next season – and another 10 earning conditional membership – Morrison will resume his long DP World Tour career, which has included 438 starts and two wins.
Morrison first graduated from the aforementioned Challenge Tour in 2009 before winning in Portugal as a DP World Tour rookie. He would win again, at the 2015 Spanish Open, but that remained his last professional victory until winning on the HotelPlanner Tour earlier this season.
Despite already having won, Morrison came into this week at number 36 in points. With his 13-year-old son Finley on the bag, he used a 7-under 65 on Saturday to build a three-shot cushion with one round to play. He put the par-5 first on Sunday and then bogeyed his next, but three birdies in a four-hole stretch starting on the par-5 11th allowed Morrison to pull away, even if it did little to quell nerves.
“That swing on the last one, I couldn’t feel my arms. It went so far to the right,” said Morisson, who closed the bogey to score 70 to finish at 15 under, ahead of runner-up Stefano Mazzoli, who took solo second to move him up ten places to No. 8 in the final rankings.
“I’m glad it’s over, let’s put it that way,” Morrison added. “But no, I played well all week. Today I didn’t play so well, but I controlled my emotions a little bit, dug into my memory and my victories on the DP World Tour, and the wind that was blowing really helped me today, because I knew that the harder it got, the more it would play into my hands.”
The 2025-26 DP World Tour season begins on November 27 at the BMW Australian PGA.
“I don’t have a tour bag. I don’t have a caddy,” Morrison said. “I’ll have to figure some things out.”
South African JC Ritchie, who made 28 starts on the DP World Tour in 2023 but finished just 11, has known for some time that he would return to the big tour. He won three times this year, including twice in September, while taking his career total of HotelPlanner Tour wins to seven.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Ritchie said. “I don’t understand what I’ve done. I think I’ve had an incredible season. When I fly back home, or maybe even tonight, I’ll sit down and think. It’s been a dream season for me. It was something one of my first coaches told me when I was preparing to go on tour. He said to try to be the best on every tour before you reach a higher level or try to get into the top 10. I managed to win the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, and then It has took time to learn to play and compete here…
“I’m not the person I was last year. I’m happier with my game, I know what I’m doing and I’m happy that I was able to prove to myself that I’m good enough to play here and compete at a higher level.”
Here is the full list of HotelPlanner Tour graduates:
NOS. 1-20 (CATEGORY 15)
1. JC Ritchie
2. David Wet
3. Maximilian Steinlechner
4. Renato Paratore
5. Jungle Guillamoundéguy
6.James Morrison
7. Filippo Celli
8. Stefano Mazzoli
9. Daniel Van Tonder
10.Sebastian Garcia
11. Daniel Young
12. Felix Mory
13.Joshua Berry
14. Euan Walker
15. Quim Vidal
16. Hugo Townsend
17. Tobias Jonsson
18. Rocco Repetto Taylor
19. Clement Charmasson
20. Albin Bergstrom
NOS. 21-30 (CATEGORY 20)
21. Jovan Rebula
22. Lucas Nemecz
23. According to Langfors
24. Jamie Rutherford
25. Anton Albers
26. Julian Perico
27. Victor Sidal Svendsen
28. Jonathan Goth-Rasmussen
29. Calum Fyfe
30.PalmerJackson
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