WA’s Haydn Barron has earned fully exempt status on the DP World Tour for 2024 after negotiating Qualifying School in Spain.
The Western Australian Golf Club member made light work of one of the most pressurised environments in all professional golf, completing six rounds of Final Qualifying in a cumulative 20-under-par. It was enough for a T9th finish with the top 25 and ties earning full playing rights on the DP World Tour.
Barron’s success was all the more remarkable when you consider that he only reached the final stage of Q-School as an alternative after missing out on automatic qualification from Stage 2 in a sudden-death playoff.
It rounds out a memorable year for Barron, who won the PGA Tour of Australasia Rookie of the Year Award for 2022-23 and also qualified for the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.
Reacting on Instagram, Barron said: “Some of the toughest and most challenging golf I’ve ever played but we did it! Thank you to everyone who’s made this possible.”
Haydn Barron and caddy Jack O’Connell at Q-School
Fellow WA pros Hayden Hopewell and Connor McKinney also played all six rounds of final qualifying, guaranteeing themselves full playing rights on the European Challenger Tour circuit for 2024 as well as some likely invites into DP World Tour events.
Hopewell finished T39th on -10 for the event, with McKinney T59th on -7. The WA trio were the only Australian golfers to play all six rounds of final qualifying with Elvis Smylie, Justin Warren, Matias Sanchez, James Marchesani and Andre Lautee failing to make the 72-hole cut, and Blake Windred retiring after two rounds.
You can view the final Q-School standings here.
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