DP World Tour: Portugal Masters Leaderboard
Just over 2 weeks ago Aaron Cockerill was at home in frigid Winnipeg, hitting balls out of a heated garage, ranked #111 on the DP World Tour, pondering his future and hoping that his status at #111 would be enough to survive the final 2 weeks of the season without being able to do much about it but watch.
After starting the year on the Challenge Tour with no status on the DP World Tour, he made the best of an invite to play the Kenya Magical Open in March when he had his best finish T2.
That got him invites to several other tournaments where he had another big week in April at the ISPS Handa Championship in Spain where he finished 3rd and was ranked #60 at that point.
That was as low and ranking as he got, and after missing the cut in Denmark, France in September and Scotland at the Dunhill Links the first week of October, he'd slipped to #111, and was sitting at home.
Then came a late call from the DP World Tour office to say he'd qualified for the last spot open at the Mallorca Golf Open, so he and expectant wife Chelsea packed their bags, booked a flight to Spain and off they went for a working holiday in the sun.
We heard about Chelsea rescuing his clubs on Wednesday from the Madrid Airport, and Aaron made the cut 68 70 70 but slipped to 74 on Sunday and his -2 finish didn't improve his ranking.
He wasn't expecting to play in Portugal, but again he was a late addition and this week he made the most of it with some brilliant play 68 65 70 68 -13 currently T27 and projected to finish the year ranked #107, with the cut off number at #117.
Today he made bogey's on the first 2 holes, but then a great approach from 190yds to 4 feet at the 3rd for a bounce back birdie and a 20 footer for birdie at the par 3 6th got him back to even par after that shaky start.
Another great putt from 30 feet for birdie got his back nine off to a great start at the 10th. He will end this season ranked #1 on Tour in Putts per Green, he was 139th in 2021.
After a birdie 3 on the driveable par 4 15th he came to his favourite hole of the week, the par 5 17th where he'd gone birdie,birdie, eagle and he birdied it again this morning and with a par at the last in the clubhouse with -3 68.
He made 5 birdies and 11 pars after his opening bogey's in what will certainly turn out to be one of the most important rounds of his career so far. He made 19 birdies and an eagle, with 8 bogey's this week.
Jordan Smith from England had a great week 62 67 62 63 -30 for his wire to wire win. Cockerill's final ranking #107 means it's finally safe to say he has his card for 2023.
Bryan Angus
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