Daniel

Gavins

The 30-year-old Englishman, No. 194 in the world rankings, arrived at Galgorm Castle Golf Club off the momentum of back-to-back top 10s on the European Challenge Tour, but Gavins had never posted a top 10 in 53 previous European Tour starts (17 cuts made overall). “I was a little nervous before, but I just tried to shoot as low as I could today,” said Gavins, who initially considered not playing last week. “At seven behind I didn’t really think I was within a chance of winning, so there was maybe a bit less pressure there. I’ve been playing well but I was going to have the week off because I knew there’s a lot of Challenge Tour events coming up, so I thought a week off here maybe and then play the rest of the Challenge Tour. I just can’t believe it, it’ll take a while to sink in, an amazing day.” Gavins, who is in the field at this week’s Hero Open at St. Andrews, is 3-for-3 in cuts made on the ET this season and 5-for-10 on the Challenge Tour.

The Englishman has been hovering around 1,300th in the world rankings for much of the year but has improved to his current all-time high of 841st in recent weeks. That’s due to T18 at the Czech Masters, T48 at the European Masters and T22 at the Porsche European Open in three of his last four starts. Like most of the field, he’ll be seeing this week’s new course for the first time although there’s further encouragement to be found in Gavins’ tournament form. He’s played this event just once before and posted T28 in 2016, shooting a Friday 65. On current form, he’s definitely worth a look as a cheap option.