Macpherson wins PGA TOUR China Series Order of Merit; earns return to 2016 Web.com Tour

A year after finishing eighth on the Ping An Bank China Tour ‐ PGA TOUR China Series’ Order of Merit, Melbourne’s Bryden Macpherson played dominant golf in the eight tournaments he entered, and his two wins and four other top-fives earned him the top spot in money earnings, with ￥769,960. Macpherson, who played on the 2015 Web.com Tour, returns to that circuit as a fully-exempt member.

New Zealand’s Josh Geary finished second behind Macpherson after electing not to play the final two events of the China season. He will be conditionally exempt in 2016, along with China’s Xinjun Zhang and Zecheng Dou and Canada’s Eugene Wong.

After a Web.com Tour season where he finished 126th on the money list and didn’t qualify for the four-event Web.com Tour Finals, Macpherson returned to China in early September and tied for 13th at the Ping An Bank Open in Beijing. Macpherson won in Beijing the following week—at the Cadillac Championship and then won the Lushan Open two starts after that. From his opening-round, 1-under 71 at the Ping An Bank Open, Macpherson set a PGA TOUR China record with 25 consecutive rounds at par or better.  The 25-year-old Macpherson locked up the top spot on the Order of Merit when he passed Geary in earnings at the Hainan Open and Geary elected not to play the final event, the Capital Airlines ‐ HNA Real Estate Championship.

“It feels awesome. In hindsight, it was hard to get myself amped up for this week knowing I had already achieved what I wanted to achieve from mid-August. I came over here to try to skip through the first stage (of the Qualifying Tournament), and I’ve managed to skip Q School altogether where I’ll have all year on the Tour next year,” Macpherson said. “I don’t think I can quite be ecstatic about it yet because I can’t really believe I’ve done it.”

“Bryden came awfully close to earning his Web.com Tour card last year off PGA TOUR China in 2014. This year, he left no doubt. He has not had a bad week since returning to China in September, and some of those weeks have been absolutely exceptional,” said PGA TOUR China Series’ Executive Director Greg Carlson. “We’ve enjoyed watching his career progress here and appreciated what a great ambassador he has been for PGA TOUR China. We wish him the best as he returns to the Web.com Tour.”

The 2016 Web.com Tour season, the 26th in its history, begins in late-January at the Panama Claro Championship in Panama City, Panama (January 29-February 1).

Beginning in 2013, the Web.com Tour became The Path to the PGA TOUR by awarding all 50 cards to Web.com Tour players for the following PGA TOUR season. Players can initially qualify for the Web.com Tour through the National Qualifying Tournament and by securing top-five Order of Merit finishes on the Ping An Bank China Tour ‐ PGA TOUR China Series, PGA TOUR Latinoamerica and the Mackenzie Tour ‐ PGA TOUR Canada. Through the 2014-15 season, former Web.com Tour players have won 424 PGA TOUR titles. Three out of four 2014-15 PGA TOUR members have Web.com Tour roots.

In 2014, PGA TOUR China, a joint effort between the PGA TOUR and the China Golf Association, had nine different winners who came from five countries (China, Australia, South Korea, Thailand and the United States). China Olympic Sports Industry ran the day-to-day operation of PGA TOUR China with assistance from the PGA TOUR.

Bryden Macpherson Season Results

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