2016 highlights: Major players

While European Challenge Tour eyes were fixed firmly on the Road to Oman this year, the wider golfing world may have taken notice of some of its up-and-coming stars as they made their presence known on the Major stages.

In April, Romain Langasque became the first active Challenge Tour player in history to compete in the Masters Tournament, travelling to Augusta National in second place on the Road to Oman.

The Frenchman, then only 20 years old, was competing in Georgia as the reigning Amateur Champion and, after practising with Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and his boyhood hero Victor Dubuisson, he acquitted himself well on the course.

Playing alongside two-time Green Jacket winner Bernhard Langer for the first two rounds, Langasque impressed to make the cut and, after a disappointing third round, came alive on Sunday to produce one of the rounds of the day.

Only three players – including winner Danny Willett – shot better than his four under par 68, which even evoked Tiger Woods’ moment of greatness when he holed ‘that’ chip from behind the 16th green.

That was his third birdie in a row, with another following on the 18th, as he ultimately finished inside the top 40, having also made the cut on his Major debut at the previous year’s Open Championship – proving beyond any doubt that he had the game to compete with the very best in the world.

Langasque, who turned professional straight after the Masters and ultimately came ninth on the Road to Oman, had previously finished runner-up in the Challenge Tour’s season-opening Barclays Kenya Open behind Sebastian Soderberg, who would then go on to have his own Major adventure in June.

There were 13 spots in the U.S. Open field on offer at Walton Heath as an impressive group of hopefuls assembled for an intense day of International Sectional Qualifying, a 36-hole stroke play shoot-out.

After the two rounds were completed, there were five players – including Soderberg – tied for 11th place, with three places at Oakmont CC still on offer – time for a play-off.

Maximillian Kieffer birdied the first additional hole to take the first available spot, while Johan Edfors’ bogey dropped him out of the running before Soren Hansen’s birdie on the second play-off hole left Jeev Milka Singh in a head-to-head with Soderberg for the last remaining place.

Two further holes were halved in par, with each man missing putts to win, before, with the temperature dropping and the shadows lengthening, Soderberg willed in a long birdie putt to book his ticket to America to make his Major debut.

The Swede, whose Road to Oman heartbreak would be remedied when he earned a European Tour card at the Final Stage of the Qualifying School, performed admirably but missed the cut around the fiendish Pennsylvanian course, regarded as one of the toughest on the Major circuit.

The following month saw a great eight Challenge Tour players head to Royal Troon to compete in The 145th Open Championship.

Dave Coupland, Nick Cullen, Ryan Evans, Scott Fernandez, James Heath, Paul Howard, Jack Senior and Clément Sordet all teed it up in Ayrshire to complete another outstanding year for the Challenge Tour on the global golfing stage.