Euro journeyman holds off McIlroy, Hatton. A PGA Tour card is next

Paul Waring is dealing with the right kind of worry Sunday night, just moments after his second career DP World Tour win. You’ve got some friends ready to celebrate with you, went the question. 

“I’m a bit worried, actually,” Waring said. 

Worried, if anything, for just how many more hours awaited him on the night of the biggest golf achievement of his life. 

Waring began his career week in a cheeky way, simply trying to make “50 percent birdies,” as he had recently been doing in practice. That goal led him to setting a course record at Yas Links, just 24 hours after Tommy Fleetwood had done the same thing. Sorry, Tommy! 

He then took a serious step back. Waring held a 5-shot, 36-hole lead entering the weekend but struggled in windy conditions to shoot 73 on Saturday, leveling the playing field. Sharks were in the water. 

The likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton were lurking close behind. Other PGA Tour players like Thomas Detry and Nicolai Hojgaard were in contention, too. These are the European golfers who graduate and leave the Europe-based tour in favor of the mega millions on offer on the PGA Tour in America. Beat them and you deserve a spot playing against them a lot more often. 

Waring wasn’t ignoring these facts, either. At 39 years old, he’s been around elite golf enough to know when the opportunity strikes you have to take it. So he talked about it after that course record 61.

“There are bigger things in my career that I do want to go and do,” he said, “and as I said yesterday, top 25 spots get an Open spot next year. That’s something I want to try and achieve, and two weeks, if I get somewhere near a PGA Tour card … why not have those goals?”

Why not?

Why not looked like birdies on the 1st and 2nd holes. Then birdies on the 7th and 10th holes, rebuilding that lead while McIlroy charged with a 64. Waring made six nervy pars in a row, slowing down just enough for Tyrrell Hatton to shoot 64 on his own, posting 22 under and tying for the lead. 

If Waring could just play the final two holes in one under par, he’d claim his first win in six years and his first Rolex Series win on the tour he’s been playing for 17 years. He did it one better, finishing birdie-birdie with a 40-footer on 17 and a 10-footer at the last — both falling into the heart of the cup and both earning electric fist-pumps.

“I’ll be honest, legs were shaking a little bit over that last putt,” Waring said after. “I just wanted to make sure that nothing else could happen and great to roll that one in on the last.”

This being the first of two playoff events on the DP World Tour, it came with a significant purse and also a bunch of Race to Dubai points, which hold more weight than ever before. After next weekend’s final playoff event, the top 10 players in the season-long ranking who don’t already have PGA Tour membership will earn full access Tour cards from their success across the pond. 

With his win Sunday, Waring jumped from a respectable, ready-for-another-year-in-Europe 48th to … 5th. And fifth behind McIlroy and Billy Horschel, two players already locked in to PGA Tour membership, who won’t count among those looking to secure one of those 10 cards. That means Waring is actually third among PGA Tour hopefuls, all but guaranteeing his spot on the PGA Tour next season. 

His first thoughts on that? 

“I was quite happy living in Dubai to be honest with you,” Waring said Sunday night. 

Plans have changed, sir. In the best way. You could find him in a most jovial, even expletive-leaning mood later on, from the DP World Tour’s ‘Green Room’.