With a third-placed finish at the BMW International Open in Germany, Kazuma Kobori can shed his shackles.
The Kiwi golfer carded the round of the day with a nine-under-par 63 in the final round of the tournament to finish 18-under, four shots back from winner Daniel Brown of England.
Kobori’s final round at Golfclub Munchen Eichenried featured nine birdies, an eagle and two bogeys to see him surge into a podium finish and earn €147,017 ($285,565).
It’s the 23-year-old’s best finish on the DP World Tour and sees him move to 44th on the season standings in his first full year, and is a major step in seeing him retain his full tour card for next season.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Kobori said he would be able to play with less stress going forward because of the result.
“I don’t know if it will change my game. It’s a bit hard to explain but, before, I had to play in a certain way. I guess it’s more freedom,” he said.
“I was talking about this with my caddie as well, I just can’t hit the same shots as I was hitting in Australia when I won the Order of Merit, because I can’t really afford to mess up, basically.
“You drop one shot, you fall 10 to 20 places on the leaderboard just like that. So now that my future is secured at least for the next short while, hopefully that translates to a bit more aggressive and better play on the golf course.”
In the DP World Tour, the top 110 players keep their card for the following season.
Over the past few seasons, 500 points for the season has been enough for players to hold onto their cards rather comfortably, and the result in Germany pushed Kobori almost to 592.47 for the year.
“Hopefully, that should be good enough.”
Despite missing the cut in Germany, fellow Kiwi Daniel Hillier has earned a spot in next weekend’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland through his position on the DP World Tour rankings.
The 28-year-old is currently 10th on the season leaderboard, and earns a spot in the final major championship of the season as one of the top five DP World Tour players not already qualified.
It will be his fourth appearance at the Open, where he finished 19th last year, while PGA Tour player Ryan Fox will also line up in the Open.
Kobori played in the final qualifying tournament for the Open earlier in the week, and therefore, went into the BMW International Open without a practice round on the course under his belt.
The third-place finish wasn’t enough, however, to join fellow Kiwis Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier in the field for this week’s US$9m ($14,844,381) Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club, with half the field made up of PGA Tour players.
Instead, Kobori will be crossing the Atlantic after earning an invite in to the ISCO Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.
“I had very low expectations [in Germany] and that turned out quite well. I will be playing a practice round next week, but hoping to keep the same low expectations going and we’ll see where that takes us.”
On the Ladies European Tour, Kiwi Amelia Garvey finished in third at the Women’s Irish Open, seven shots back from English amateur Lottie Woad.
Garvey finished the tournament with a six-under 67, her best round of the week. It is her third top-three finish in the last four tournaments and sees her move to 10th in the season standings.