Nathan Kimsey became the first Englishman to win the Challenge Tour points list since 2016 after securing his second victory of the season at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final at Club de Golf Alcanada in Mallorca.

The 29-year-old from Lincolnshire posted a closing 70 to move to nine under and secure a one-stroke victory over countryman John Parry and South African Bryce Easton, who shared second place to both break into the Road to Mallorca top 20 and clinch a place on next season’s DP World Tour.

Kimsey started the final day slowly with four pars and a bogey in his first five holes, however after carding birdies at 6 and 8 he climbed to the top of the leaderboard before an eagle at the par-five 13th essentially sealed a memorable victory.

“I’m knackered. Wining golf tournaments isn’t easy,” said Kimsey, whose lifted him five places to the top of the rankings. “That was a battle out there. I didn’t have my best stuff, but I hit some good shots and holed some putts when it mattered. I’m a jumble of emotions – relief, happiness, just everything. Coming into the week, knowing I had it in my own hands, if I won to then finish as number on, it just feels great. I just tried to keep grinding. Nerves were a part of it so it was about trying to battle that and hit solid shots. I wanted to keep myself in with a chance coming up the last few holes and I did that.”

He added: “At the start of the year we all have it as a goal to get your card, so to come here and win this tournament and become number one, is just awesome. The card was wrapped up, but I just wanted to finish as high as possible to secure as many starts as possible next year, so I knew it was tight at the top. With a lot of points on offer this week, you’re trying to have a good week, while everyone is fighting for the same thing around you.”

Kimsey, who won the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge earlier this season, finished 48,894 points ahead of Switzerland’s Jeremy Freiburghaus, who came second on the Rankings, with German Alexander Knappe finishing third. Ten-time Sunshine Tour winner JC Ritchie graduated in fourth place with Swede Mikael Lindberg finishing fifth and completing the quintet who will benefit from the John Jacobs Bursary Award next season.

Lindberg’s fellow Swede Jens Dantorp finished sixth, while Daniel Hillier, from New Zealand, finished in seventh place. Number Eight Oliver Hundebøll was one of two Danes to secure graduation alongside Martin Simonsen, who finished the season in 14th place, while German Freddy Schott and Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin rounded out the top ten. Northern Irishman McKibbin, aged just 19, was the youngest man in the field and climbed five places to tenth on the Rankings with a tie for sixth in Mallorca.

Parry, Easton and England’s Matthew Baldwin all made a final day move into the top 20, finishing 17th, 18th and 19th, while the final DP World Tour card belongs to South African Deon Germishuys, who finished just 1,507 points ahead of Poland’s Mateusz Gradecki, who narrowly missed out on graduation.

The final Road to Mallorca Rankings can be found here, with the top 20 receiving the DP World Tour cards for 2023.

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While the LIV Golf Championship wound down with $34 million on the line between 16 golfers in Miami on Sunday, Seamus Power had something even more valuable at stake one time zone east of where Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed were busy winning the $16 million first prize at LIV Miami.

Power shot a roller coaster of a 70 in the final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship to go with three consecutive 65s to start the week and beat Thomas Detry by a single shot. The win gets Power into next year’s Masters (he’s only played in one in his career), moves him up from his impressive No. 48 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings, nets him 500 FedEx Cup points and, perhaps most intriguing of all, officially puts him on the 2023 Ryder Cup watch list.

The Irishman went out in 33 on Sunday but came home with four bogeys (including three in his last four holes!) and a 37 that could have upended his chances. However, his main competitor in the final round in Bermuda, Ben Griffin, had an even wackier back nine as he shot a 4-over 39 on the back with two birdies, four bogeys and a double.

“Delighted to get it done,” the affable European said after his round. “… absolutely delighted.”

The win is Power’s second on the PGA Tour — he also took the Barbasol Championship in 2021. But don’t let the quality of victory obfuscate what has been a terrific rise for somebody who doesn’t get as much run as fellow countryman Shane Lowry but could possibly a teammate of Lowry’s come Rom next September.

“Completely different feeling but just as special,” said the 35-year-old after his win. “It’s so hard. I play a lot of tournaments and this is only my second. It’s amazing it’s special. It’s going to take a while to sink in, but absolutely over the moon.”

In 2019 Power was a (well) below average PGA Tour player who was averaging -1.0 strokes per round, but in each of the last three seasons he’s improved to the point that he’s now hanging out in the statistical neighborhood with golfers like Jason Day, Paul Casey, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott.

Perhaps even more impressively, Power came into this week’s Bermuda Championship as one of the handful of favorites to win … and then he won. That’s one of the hardest things in golf to do, and now the question is whether he can move from being a good lower-tier PGA Tour player to competitive with the big boys in the most important events.

In 2022, Power qualified for all four major championships and had two top 12s and three top 30s in his four starts. This is encouraging and a sign of his tremendous growth as a golfer over the last several years.

Power could go a number of different directions from here. Perhaps he’ll remain as a good but not great PGA Tour golfer. Perhaps he’ll make yet another leap in 2023, contend in more majors and notch his first Ryder Cup experience in Rome. Perhaps somewhere in the middle of those two realities is where he’ll eventually land. Regardless, his win in Bermuda on Sunday was a reminder of just how far he’s jumped in such a short timespan and what that could mean for his suddenly surging career.

We’ve got reaction and analysis to the Bermuda Butterfield Championship and LIV Miami. Follow and listen to The First Cut podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  

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