Moriarty targets Kazakhstan

By Brian Keogh

Colm Moriarty has set his sights on grabbing his European Tour card in faraway Kazakhstan.

The Athlone ace, 28, finished tied fourth in the Rolex Trophy in Switzerland on Sunday.

Up eight places to 23rd in the Challenge Tour rankings, he needs just one big finish before the end of the season to grab his dream ticket to the main tour.

And he's hoping to get it in the €330,000 Kazakhstan Open from September 20-23.

He said: "I have played six weeks in a row so I am taking this week off to work on a few things with my coach Brendan McDaid and then I'll get out there for the next four events.

"The top 20 on the rankings get their tour cards for next year so I'll be going all out for that.

"I could have played the KLM Open on the main tour this week but I have decided to concentrate on the Challenge Tour and I have four big events coming up.

"The last of the four is the Kazakhstan Open and I was tied for second behind Stephen Browne there two years ago, so I know the course."

Moriarty will skip this week's POSTBANK Challenge presented by Marcel Siem and hit the fairways in next week's ECCO Tour Championship in Denmark.

After that he will play the Telia Challenge in Sweden and the OKI Mahou Challenge in Spain before heading to the central Asian republic.

Meanwhile, David Higgins will join Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane in Holland this week as he bids to grab his tour card.

The Waterville ace has vowed to chase his status through the main tour by playing at least four of the next five events.

He said: "There was some confusion after the Scottish Challenge when I thought I might be second there but I ended up third on my own in the end.

"If I had been second I would have played in the Rolex Trophy and then gone the Challenge Tour route for the rest of the season.

"But now I am concentrating on the main tour and I think I'm playing well enough to get up around the €200,000 mark. I might need a couple of top 10s but I am playing nicely so you never know."