Watch the Portugal Masters live on Sky Sports Golf, starting at 11.30am on Thursday
Wednesday 23 October 2019 15:23, UK
The Race to Dubai regular season reaches its climax this week at the Portugal Masters, where plenty of players are fighting to retain their playing privileges on the European Tour.
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This week's tournament at Dom Pedro Victoria GC in the Algarve is the final opportunity for players to guarantee their playing rights for 2020, with only the top 117 in the season-long standings after the close of play keeping their card.
Those sitting in the top 70 after this week are eligible to play the Turkish Airlines Open and stay in the running to qualify for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, while those outside the top-117 face a likely trip to Qualifying School or a drop-down to the Challenge Tour.
We take a look at some of the players "on the bubble" and with a lot to play for in the coming days...
112th - Oliver Fisher - A year on from making European Tour history in Portugal by becoming the first to shoot a sub-60 round, the Englishman has since fallen down the Race to Dubai standings after failing to register a worldwide top-10 since February.
113th - Clement Sordet - Two bogeys in the final three holes saw the Frenchman narrowly miss out on a maiden European Tour win at the Oman Open in February, ending a shot back in tied-second. Sordet has only registered one top-40 finish in his 14 starts since, missing the cut in half of them.
115th - Lee Slattery - The two-time European Tour winner moved back inside the provisional cut-off point with a tied-32nd finish at the Open de France, a result he has only bettered three times in 24 appearances in 2019. Slattery has missed the cut in his previous three visits to the event.
117th - Jack Singh Brar - The magic number will change this week if Abraham Ancer, who isn't playing this week, drops out of the top 116, meaning the 23-year-old will need to bounce back from successive missed cuts to keep his future in his own hands.
118th - Paul Dunne - The 2017 British Masters champion is outside of those currently retaining their cards, with the Irishman now outside of the world's top 300 after missing 11 of his last 13 cuts. The former Walker Cup winner finished tied-44th in last year's event.
119th - Jeunghun Wang - The Korean's exemption for winning the 2017 Qatar Masters expires this year, although two-top 10s in his last four starts have given Wang an outside chance of retaining his playing privileges for a fifth consecutive year.
Best of the rest…
Bernd Ritthammer (126th) is still yet to secure his card despite a tied-second finish at the Porsche European Open last month, while former Ryder Cup hero Jamie Donaldson (129th) stuttered to a final-round 78 and tied-23rd finish at the Open de France to miss out on a bigger move up the Race to Dubai standings.
Ireland's Gavin Moynihan (140th) produced a career-best finish at Le Golf National last week but will need to better that again if he's to avoid a trip to Qualifying School, while 2017 KLM Open champion Romain Wattel (142nd) arrives in Portugal with missed cuts in seven of his last nine starts.
Watch the Portugal Masters throughout the week live on Sky Sports Golf. Live coverage begins on Thursday from 11.30am on Sky Sports Golf.
