James Morrison was ready for this week to be his last in the world of professional golf. Golf had other ideas.
The 40-year-old Morrison spent 15 years on the DP World Tour, winning twice, before losing his card after last season. He spent this year on the HotelPlanner Tour but entered this week’s HotelPlanner Tour’s Rolex Grand Final needing a good finish to at least earn conditional status on the DP World Tour in 2026. The top 20 finishers secured full cards for next season, with another 10 earning conditional status.
He was ready to walk off into the sunset. But a fairytale ending has forced him to change his plans.
“When I said this was going to be my last event, it really was going to be, 100 percent,” Morrison told Sky Sports on Sunday after a three-shot win put him in sixth place in the developmental tour’s point list and guaranteed him a spot on the DP World Tour next season. “This has completely messed that up.”
With his 13-year-old son Finley on the bag, Morrison fired a seven-under 65 on Saturday to build a three-shot lead. When he woke on Sunday, Morrison, who had been content with this week being his swan song, had a different perspective with a win with his son on the bag 18 holes away.
“It’s funny that all week I had that attitude of ‘right, this could be the last one and I don’t really care’,” Morrison said, via The Scotsman. “But then this morning I started to care a little bit and I was like ‘hang on a minute, this is not where I want to be’. I just tried to dig into the memory bank of years gone by and managed to do that.”
The nerves got to Morrison early on Sunday. He three-putted the par-5 first and then made a bogey on the second. But he steadied himself and then made three birdies in a four-hole stretch starting at the par-5 11th to stretch his lead to four. But even with a big cushion, Morrison still felt the pressure on the 72nd hole.
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