Malaysian No 1 Gavin Green has set his sights on a top 30 finish in next year’s Race To Dubai rankings following a rollercoaster first season on the European Tour.
Green finished 84th in this year’s rankings to keep his tour card comfortably, but unfortunately missed out on a place in the on-going season-ender, the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai which features only the top 60 players.
“Next year I’ll aim to peak for the big events … I know now what to expect and I would have played many of the courses before, so that will be a big help. The main goal is to get up into the top 30 on the Race To Dubai rankings, which will get me into more big events like the Majors and World Golf Championships,” said Green, who turns 25 this December 28.
Green played 30 events in a hectic season, amassing six top-20 finishes with his best performance coming at August’s D+D Real Czech Masters where he finished third.
“Overall it was a solid season. There was a lot of learning about new stuff like the weather, cold and the wind, which you don’t really get in Asia,” said the 2017 Asian Tour No 1.
“The courses in Europe are generally tight and, with the wind, you have to hit a lot of different shots which I haven’t done in a long time. The wind is a lot stronger than in the US,” added Green, who played college golf for the University of New Mexico before turning professional in 2015.
Green’s status on the European Tour will get him into most of the events next season, including the co-sanctioned tournaments and Rolex Series events. He heads to Australia in few days to play in next week’s ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf, representing the country with Ben Leong at Metropolitan Golf Club.
Following the World Cup, Green will remain Down Under to play in the following week’s Australian PGA Championship in The Gold Coast. He noted that he might round off the year at the Asian Tour’s Indonesian Masters in mid-December.
“Or I might just take a break until Abu Dhabi in January. I haven’t decided yet… it’s been a long year and I’m tired,” he said.
In the meantime, Green is enjoying being home. “It’s so good to be back, been a long time since I was home. First thing we did was to go to Village Park to eat the nasi lemak!”
