Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
-20 A Meronk (Pol); -18 C Jarvis (SA), N Norgaard (Den); -17 M Stewart (Sco), T Fleetwood (Eng); -16 R MacIntyre (Sco), B Koepka (US)
Selected others: -13 C Syme (Sco); -12 S Bairstow (Eng), C Hill (Sco); -12 M Fitzpatrick (Eng), M Jordan (Eng); -11 D Law (Sco), R Mansell (Eng); -9 P Harrington (Ire), A Fitzpatrick (Eng), S Jamieson (Sco), C Adam (Sco), E Walker (Sco)
On Wednesday, Michael Stewart earned £2,500 for finishing runner-up in the Tartan Pro Tour event at Duddingston Golf Club near Edinburgh.
Four days later, the world number 979 has just picked up nearly 100 times that by finishing joint fourth behind winner Adrian Meronk at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
But what the 36-year-old Scot regards as “without doubt” the best week of his career has left him with a dilemma.
Finishing in the top 10 – two shots behind Poland’s Meronk, one behind Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard and South Africa’s Casey Jarvis, and tied with England’s Tommy Fleetwood – means he qualifies for next week’s big-money Spanish Open.
However, that clashes with the conclusion to the Tartan Pro Tour, the Gleneagles Masters, after which Stewart will qualify for next year’s second-tier Challenge Tour should he protect his current second place.
“Right now, in all honesty, in my mind, it’s definitely play the Tartan Pro Tour final at Gleneagles,” Stewart said.
“If I don’t go and somebody overtakes me, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.
“I’ve played so well to put myself in that position as well. There’s so many good players behind me. One of three or four guys can catch me and, if one of them plays well, they can win.
