The Volvo China Open came to an end, marking the end of the 2020-21 China Tour. In the fiercely competitive prize list battle, 32-year-old Hunan player Zhang Huilin relied on the performance of Shenzhen Zhengzhong home to defend the title of 9th place, and won 47,400 yuan in prize money, thus increasing the total prize money of the season to 536425 yuan, with an advantage of 33445 yuan to defeat a brother in Hong Kong, China, Hei Junyi, and won the title of "Bonus King" of the Central Tour!
Zhang Huilin thus became the third Chinese native player in the history of the China Tour to win the prize money after Li Haotong (2014) and Dou Zecheng (2016). More importantly, he also opened up a valuable career "upward trajectory" – winning membership in the 2022 DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour, which is still referred to hereinafter).
In the men's golf world ranking system, the world professional tour is roughly divided into three levels: level 1, which is the founding level of the world ranking organization of the six major tour - PGA TOUR, European Tour, Day Tour, Asian Tour, Australian Tour, South Africa Sunshine Tour, the flagship events of these tours, basically can get at least 20 points from the jump "guaranteed" world ranking points; the 2nd level, is the PGA TOUR level 2 Korn Ferry Tour, European Tour II European Challenge Tour, and the South Korean Tour, The world ranking score of the single event is about 9-16 points; the Central Tour belongs to the 3rd level, which is in the same level as the PGA TOUR III, European Tour III, Japanese Tour II, Asian Tour II, India Tour, and Thailand Tour, with a single points of about 3-7 points.
There are many world-ranked organization certification events
In this sense, Zhang Huilin is equivalent to "skipping" from the 3rd level of the Central Tour to the 1st level of the European Tour. In terms of world rankings and prize money, it is much more cost-effective and "powerful" than the PGA Tour China tournament that used to upgrade from Level 3 to Level 2 (Light Tour)! Because the top three prize kings of the Central Tour – South Korean Cho Le-hyun in 2017, American Charlie Saxon in 2018, and Mawickik Antecliffe in 2019 – are all foreign players, Zhang Huilin became the first Chinese in history to directly advance from the Chinese Tour to the European Tour.
The official Certificate of Awards awarded to Zhang Huilin by the European Tour clearly indicates that the latter's European Tour members are ranked as "Category 17". In addition to the Central Tour Prize Money King, this category also includes the Prize King of the South African Sunshine Tour, the Australian Tour, the Korean Tour, and some of the 2019 European Tour Qualification Exam graduates from category 17 of the previous season.
It is worth mentioning that in the ranking of "Category 17", the 2020 Southern Tour Bonus King JC Ritchie, the 2021 Australian Tour Bonus King Brad Kennedy, and the 2020 Korean Tour Bonus King Kim Tae-hoon occupy the serial numbers of 1, 2 and 3 respectively, and the serial number 4 is currently in the "vacant" state - not surprisingly, this "serial number 4" in "Category 17" is Zhang Huilin's entry in the 2022 European Tour!
The serial number 4 in category 17 seems to have been reserved for Zhang Huilin
So, how many European Tour games can Zhang Huilin qualify for this pick?
We have roughly counted that among the current European Tour entries, the members who ranked before Zhang Huilin, from category 1 to category 16c, there are about 212 people! Usually, a regular European Tour has a squad of just 144 people. Does this mean that Zhang Huilin will have to wait until at least 68 people in front of him to retire before he can register for a European Tour?!
This is certainly not the case, the European Tour members who ranked before Zhang Huilin include Dubai Race Overall Champion and Grand Slam Champion (Category 1, e.g. Joan Ram), Rolex Series and World Championship winners (Category 2, e.g. Justin Rose), European Tour Champions (Category 3 and 4, e.g. Paul Casey, Adam Scott), Top 40 Career Prize List (Category 5 and 11, e.g. Ernie Els and Louis Usuren), Ryder Cup Member (Category 9, Ian Pault), Most of these players are already "amphibious players" who also have PGA Tour membership, and they rarely play on the regular European Tour, and the number is about forty or fifty.
There are many European Tour stars, but not every star stops at the European Tour
Even in the 10 categories with the largest number of people before Zhang Huilin (the top 121 in the Dubai competition last season), there are many PGA Tour full or half card players such as Will Zaratoris and Robert McIntyre, as well as the world's top 50 high-level golfers, who travel back and forth between the US and European stages at any time throughout the year.
Combining the above factors, in the European Tour schedule, those "regular events" of "non-Grand Slam/World Championship/Rolex Series" will basically not be "full" for players in the top 16 categories - such regular seasons, in 2022, there are about 33 games - in theory, these more ordinary European Tour matches, Zhang Huilin has room to line up.
Take Zhang Huilin's two previous Central Tour bonus kings (Charlie Saxon did not choose to compete in the European Tour in 2018) as an example: Zhao Lexuan, the 2017 bonus king, participated in 25 European Tour matches in the following season, accounting for 49% of the annual schedule, of which 9 promotions, but unfortunately the best result was only tied for 12th place, unfortunately failed to keep the card.
Zhao Lexuan, the first to play in the European Tour as the king of the Central Tour Bonus
2019 Mid-Tour bonus King AnteCliffe, 2020 season participated in 19 European Tour matches, considering the epidemic factor, the European Tour only held 38 games that year, and the Australian's 50% participation rate is actually higher than Zhao Lexuan. Due to the retention of everyone's membership due to the epidemic, Antecliffe was full of fire in 2021, participating in as many as 24 European Tour matches, and narrowly finished second in the Canary Island Championship, and finally finished 85th in the Dubai Competition, and successfully upgraded to the "big seed" player in category 10, which will be able to guarantee the right to participate in more games.
History shows that the number of games around 18-25 should be the number of entries in Zhang Huilin's debut European Tour season.
It is worth mentioning that all "Category 17" European Tour players will also have the qualification for the European Tour Ii , the European Challenge Tour. That is to say, even if Zhang Huilin does not qualify for a certain week's European Tour lineup, as long as the schedule of the second division is arranged in the same period, he can still choose to stay in Europe and participate in the same level of European challenge as the Foshan Open.
The Uae Ras Al Khaimah Championship on February 3 is expected to witness Zhang Huilin's European Tour debut
From the perspective of time, Zhao Lexuan and Antecliff have been included in the first European Tour in the coming year, although the next Middle East "invitation-based" Abu Dhabi Championship and Dubai Desert Classic, making it difficult for the Central Tour Money King to enter, Antecliff can still be lucky to be shortlisted for the same star-studded Saudi International Team.
Judging from the 2022 European Tour schedule, Zhang Huilin should not be able to enter the first two $8 million Rolex series, the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Dubai Desert Classic. However, the first Ras al Khaimah Championship in the United Arab Emirates on February 3-6, and the Qatar Masters in the following week (February 10-17), are both in the $2 million regular season, and Zhang Huilin is likely to enter the lineup.
Zhang Huilin will appear on the European Tour (Photo: Wang Liming/Liu Zhuang)
If both the visa and the team are fully prepared, it is not surprising that these two Middle Eastern events at the beginning of the Lunar New Year will be the glorious place for Zhang Huilin to welcome the debut of the European Tour.
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