Euro Tourer keeps out McIlroy, Hatton. A PGA Tour card is next

Paul Waring is dealing with the right kind of worry on Sunday night, just moments after his second career DP World Tour win. You have some friends ready to party with youwent the question.

“I’m a little worried, actually,” Waring said.

Worried, if nothing else, how many more hours awaited him on the night of the greatest golfing achievement of his life.

Waring began his career week in cheeky fashion, simply trying to make “50 percent birdies,” as he had done recently in practice. This goal led him to the right setting a course record at Yas Linksjust 24 hours later Tommy Fleetwood had done the same. Sorry, Tommy!

Then he took a serious step back. Waring held a 5-shot, 36-hole lead entering the weekend, but battled through windy conditions to shoot a 73 on Saturday, leveling the playing field. Sharks were in the water.

The likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroyShane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton lurked close behind. Other PGA Tour players such as Thomas Detry and Nicolai Hojgaard were also in the running. These are the European players who graduate and leave the European-based tour in favor of the mega-millions offered on the PGA Tour in America. Beat them and you deserve a place playing against them much more often.

Waring was not ignoring these facts either. At 39, he’s been around golf’s elite long enough to know when the opportunity comes, you have to take it. So he talked about it after that course record 61.

“There are bigger things in my career that I want to go and do,” he said, “and like I said yesterday, the top 25 gets an open spot next year. That’s something I want to try and I get it, and two weeks, if I get anywhere near a PGA Tour card … why not have those goals?”

Why not?

Why didn’t they look like the birdies on the 1st and 2nd holes. Then birdies on the 7th and 10th holes, rebuilding that lead as McIlroy charged with a 64. Waring made six nervous pars in a row, slowing the pace enough for Tyrrell Hatton to shoot a 64 himself, posting 22 under and tying for the lead.

If Waring could play just the last two holes in one under par, he would earn his first win in six years and his first Rolex Series win on the tour he has played in 17 years. He made it one better, finishing birdie-birdie with a 40-footer on 17 and a 10-footer at the bottom — both fell into the heart of the cup and both earned electric fist pumps.

“I’ll be honest, the legs were shaking a bit on that last putt,” Waring said afterwards. “I just wanted to make sure nothing else could happen and great to get it in at the end.”

This is the first of two playoff events on the DP World Tour, it came with a significant purse and also a bunch of Race to Dubai points, which carry more weight than ever before. After next weekend’s final playoff event, the top 10 players in the rankings over the course of the season who do not already have PGA Tour membership will earn all-access tournament cards from their success across the pond.

With his victory on Sunday, Waring jumped from respectable place, ready for another year in Europe, 48th to … fifth. And fifth behind McIlroy and Billy Horschel, two players already locked into PGA Tour membership who won’t be counted among those looking to secure one of those 10 cards. That means Waring is actually third among the PGA Tour hopefuls, but guarantees his place on the PGA Tour next season.

His first thoughts on this?

“I was quite happy living in Dubai to be honest with you,” Waring said on Sunday night.

Plans have changed, sir. In the best way. You can find him in a very cheerful mood, even with explosive tendencies later, from the ‘Green Room’ of the DP World Tour.