A final round of 2 under 70 saw Gary Hurley hand in his card for a share of 32nd at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa on Sunday morning.
It's the second week in a row that the Aglish man has been walking the fairways of South Africa and this past fortnight has shown the step up in form that is needed to compete at the top level of European golf.
The dust has settled on his achievement in securing his card for the DP World Tour and now Hurley is beginning to bed in for the long haul. These events come thick and fast with fields of experienced touring professionals each week. Names like Branden Grace, Eddie Pepperell and Louis Oosthuizen pop regularly on the tour - all of whom have won at the top level, as well as contending in some of the biggest events on the world stage.
Hurley can be happy with his last two performances. T15 at the South African Open last weekend and now a T32 finish at Leopard Creek.
On Thursday his opening round had a sense of embracing the chaos. He was one over for the day with birdies, pars, bogeys and doubles all evident. The following second, third and fourth rounds were a bit calmer as he settled into the course. There was just a single hole over par on Friday when he double-bogeyed the 10th. That second-day outing was to be his best of the weekend with a 68.
What a place this is 😍 ⠀
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Delighted to get to play 2 more rounds here ⛳ ⠀
⠀#leopardcreek 🐆 ⠀#AlfredDunhillChampionship⠀#ADC2022 pic.twitter.com/VJfdTRrdTH— Gary Hurley (@GaryHurley93) December 9, 2022
Saturday saw more steady play with a 1 under round of 71 thanks to reliable par scoring with only two dropped shots across the front and back nine.
While he couldn't regain the scoring from Friday, Hurley's Sunday offering was once again very steady. Just the one slip-up on the 11th with reliable par-making shots throughout the 18 holes at Leopard Creek.
His 32nd-place finish shows that he can rally when things have gone against him. After a less-than-perfect start he was able to make his way back into the tournament and set himself up nicely for next weekend when he heads to the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open on Thursday, December 15th.
