CHARLIE Forster has a one-in-three chance of ending the week as the holder of a full card for the DP World Tour next season – when some of the biggest names in golf, who are quitting the controversial LIV Tour will most likely be looking to play in Europe in 2027.
The Basingstoke GC ambassador – who began his rise through the junior ranks to a full Great Britain and Ireland international playing at the old Kempshott Park course – qualified for The Grand Final, which takes place in Majorca this week.
Only 45 players – featuring some former DP World Tour winners looking to regain their status at Europe’s elite level of the game – will start when the action gets under way at Alcanada GC on Thursday morning.
And the top 15 in the Road to Mallorca rankings – the hotelplanner Tour’s money list – come Sunday night after all four rounds of the tournament are complete will earn automatic promotion to the DP World Tour.
Forster, who qualified to play in the season’s climax in the Baleric Islands thanks to a strong performance in the penultimate two events in China earlier this month, stands in 22nd place
They will all earn a category 15 card for 2027, which guarantees them at least 20 starts, playing in Africa, Asia, America and Europe over the coming 12 months.
Walker Cup ace Charlie Forster goes into the final event of the season in 22nd place on the Road to Mallorca. Picture by GETTY IMAGES
Should Charlie finish outside that top 15 – and the calculations based on this week’s biggest prize purse of the season suggest Forster will almost certainly need to finish in the top five to earn a full DP World Tour card – the next five finishers all earn a conditional card, with the security of having the highest ranking card to play on the hotelplanner Tour for another year.
Those players who end the season in the top 30 of the Order of Merit – but outside the top 20 – will still have some status on the DP World Tour for the smaller events, as well as a category seven card for the old Challenge Tour as it was known for decades.
Forster is currently 60 points ahead of the mark to earn a category seven card for next year – he started the season with a category 11 card, having qualified through the Global Amateur Pathway, as one of the top five players in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), who were not at college in the USA.
Charlie is managed by Modest! Golf Management – founded by One Direction star Niall Horan and Mark McDonnell, the former North Hants GC junior who played golf with his brother Paul, who now manages clubmate Justin Rose, the former World and European No. 1 and Olympic Champion.
A good week for Charlie is almost certain to see him earning starts to play alongside fellow Modest player Tyrrell Hatton, who along with fellow Legion team-mate Jon Rahm, will be looking to keep their places in Luke Donald’s European Ryder Cup to face America in Ireland in September.
Charlie will have former Hampshire team-mate Joe Buenfeld on the bag for a third week running, as the pair hope to keep the good form and momentum that earned them a best of the season tied third in the Hainan Open, followed by a share of ninth in the Hangzhou Open a week later.
Those two finishes earned the former Peter Symonds College pupil €39,000 out of a total of almost €90,000 earned in 21 starts with four top 10s in total.
There are plenty of pointers which should encourage Charlie as he prepares for the biggest week in the 23-year-old’s fledgling career.
The Alcanada course favours big hitters and ever since Charlie’s breakthrough in US college golf in 2022, which also saw him reach the semi-finals of the English Amateur Championship as an unknown county player – who had only been playing in the Hampshire team for less than a year – has had a strong game off the tee.
And with a weekend forecast predicting stronger winds than over the first two rounds will buffet the coastal course – conditions Charlie is familiar with from his amateur days – recent winners of the Grand Final have built their scores on Thursday and Friday, and then hung on against the highly intense final two rounds – with career-changing rewards up for grabs.
Three of the last four winners have been English and Charlie is one of only eight fellow countrymen in the field.
Interestingly, only three of them played in the Walker Cup for GB&I, alongside Scotsman Mark Warren, who holed the winning putt in 2001 when the Americans lost at home for just the second time in the competition’s history.
Warren, who has won four times on tour since, played alongside Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell, a future US Open winner, and Nick Dougherty, who now fronts Sky Sports golf coverage.
Indeed Sky Sports will feature all four rounds of the Grand Final live this week, giving golf fans the first chance to see the Perins School old boy in action in real time – his best weeks have seen him feature in the weekly highlights show on the satellite TV station.
Charlie Forster has recorded four top 10s on his rookie serason on the hotelplanner Tour. Picture by GETTY IMAGES
CHARLIE Forster’s dad Lance likes his son’s chances of making up the 110 points on 15th place, and will be walking the fairways supporting him, alongside wife Nikki.
Lance said: “It’s a shootout at the end of a long debut season for Charlie. To be honest, while you hope for the best, I would have snapped your hand off if you had said Charlie would reach the Grand Final, even if it was in the 45th and last qualifying spot.
“While you can’t work out precisely what he needs to jump up those seven places – another top 10 finish might be enough – but even a top 20 finish overall will earn him starts on the DP World Tour next year.
“And with the demise of the LIV Tour and the number of top players looking to come back to the PGA Tour via the DP World Tour, starts next year will be more precious than ever.
“It makes the week a bit of crap shoot – but I was in Las Vegas when Charlie won his second-ever US college victory – and his first for Long Beach State, which kick started his push to get in the Walker Cup team last year.
“I fancy those odds again and having his best mate in Joe on the bag will help Charlie keep loose in all the pressure they will be under at Alcanada.
“They have definitely created a spark since they paired up in China, and at this stage of the season, golf is all about momentum.
“The course looks fantastic and I can’t wait to see how Charlie fares. Some of the pundits think it’s a bombers’ paradise.
“Well that helps Charlie. Whatever happens, it’s another week for his Tour education, and as a family we’ll go where the cards fall.”
Lance confirmed that if Charlie fails to jump inside the top 20 of the hotelplanner Tour money list, he still has the option to go to the DP World Tour Qualifying School in Spain, next week.
The six-round marathon, at Tarragona’s Infinitum Golf Club, will also offer 15 conditional cards for the 2027 season – but in category 18, which is one below those players who finish between 16 and 20th on the hotelplanner Tour.
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Basingstoke GC’s Charlie Forster playing in the Hangzhou Open, watched by caddie Joe Buenfeld, the current Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Champion. PIcture by GETTY IMAGES