Benjamin Follett-Smith delivered an absolute masterclass at the D+D Real Czech Challenge, strolling to a five-shot victory and making a big statement in his quest for a DP World Tour card.
Playing at the Royal Beroun Golf Club, the Zimbabwean looked calm, collected, and downright unstoppable, wrapping up the win with a final round 64, taking him to 28-under for the week.
He left his nearest challengers, Maxence Giboudot from France and Finland’s Oliver Lindell, tied for second and scratching their heads five strokes back.
This win doesn’t just give Follett-Smith another trophy for the mantle—it shoots him 46 spots up the Road to Mallorca Rankings, now sitting comfortably in 26th place with only three events left in the season.
He’s now got his eyes firmly on a top-20 finish, which would secure him a promotion to the DP World Tour, where the competition gets even stiffer and the rewards even bigger.
“The feeling is unreal,” Follett-Smith said, still soaking in the victory. “Every time you win, it’s such an incredible feeling. It makes every bit of practice and bad round of golf worth it.”
And now, with upcoming events in China, he’s feeling pretty good about his chances of locking down that elusive DP World Tour card.
“Being in this position now and being able to play the two events in China and having a really good chance again of getting my DP World Tour card has taken a huge amount of pressure off,” he added. “Right now, all I want to do is get onto the DP World Tour.”
It wasn’t just a lucky day for Follett-Smith either. The man’s been on cruise control all week.
His final round saw him roll in four birdies with just one bogey on the front nine, and he didn’t take his foot off the gas, adding three more birdies on the back nine.It was steady, smart golf—nothing too flashy, just what he needed to secure his second Challenge Tour title, following his win at the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open in 2023.
“My golf was pretty close to perfect,” he said, sounding like a man who knows his game is right where it needs to be. “I played really well the whole week, and overall it’s been immaculate.”
He stuck to his game plan, opting for a conservative approach. “I just stuck with what I needed to do.
I played conservative golf today, just hitting to the middle of the green. Sometimes it doesn’t work out but I’m so grateful that it has here.”
As for the rest of the field, Englishman Sam Hutsby finished solo fourth at 22-under, while Denmark’s Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen and James Allen of England, who fired a brilliant 61, shared fifth place at 21-under.
The top of the Road to Mallorca Rankings remains largely unchanged, with Englishman John Parry still holding onto the Number One spot.
But Lindell’s runner-up finish bumped him up to eighth place, and Hutsby climbed into the promotion zone, now sitting 18th after his strong showing in Beroun.
Next up, the Road to Mallorca heads to China, where the Hainan Open tees off at Sanya Luhuitou Golf Club from October 10-13, 2024.
It’s crunch time, and with just a few events left, every shot counts for players like Follett-Smith who are hoping to punch their ticket to the DP World Tour.
