Ronan Mullarney admitted that relief was the overriding emotion after a T7 finish at the Regione Lazio Alps Tour Grand Final saw him secure the fifth and final HotelPlanner Tour card on offer for 2026.
The Galway man shot a closing four-under-par round of 68 to finish the week on nine-under, but with one of his main challengers for the top five places going on to win the tournament and one of the others breaking the course record in Friday’s second round, it was nip and tuck throughout the entire final round.
“I’m relieved,” he said after securing fifth place in the Order of Merit. “I’m sure the happiness will come, but for now, it’s sheer relief because that was such a long week.”
Asier Aguirre Izcue – the man directly behind Mullarney in the rankings at the start of the week – shot rounds of 68 and 69 to put himself in a strong position going into the final round, and then shot a bogey-free 66 to get into a playoff that he’d go on to win, leaving Mullarney, Spaniard Javier Calles Roman and Holland’s Jerry Ji battling it out for the fifth and final promotion place.
“I checked the leaderboard a couple of times because I wanted a rough idea of what was going on, and I saw Jerry – Jerry’s a good guy – but Jerry was flying. I think he was like six-under through 10 or something, and I’m just thinking ‘what the hell?’
“But then I think I went four-under for my next five holes, so it definitely didn’t hurt checking the scores, and it all worked out, but for a while it was as though all the things that could go wrong were going wrong with the guys around me all playing so well.”
After making back-to-back birdies on seven and eight, a bogey on the ninth could’ve proved costly but he showed remarkable grit and determination by birdieing 10, 11, 13 and 14 to put himself back in the driving seat.
“I thought I’d hit a really nice shot into nine, which is a short par-3, but it went long and I left myself a really awkward shot back and made bogey. It was only 147 yards, so to make bogey there was criminal, really, but that was really important to bounce back like that.”
In the end, had Mullarney bogeyed the last or had Ji birdied the last, it could’ve been a different story and, for Mullarney, it highlighted the fact that every shot in every tournament can be pivotal on the final day.
“It always seems to come down to one shot, it’s amazing,” he said. “I knew that from 2023 [where he topped the Alps Tour Order of Merit and earned his first promotion]. If you’re not having your best week, the difference between finishing tied for 35th and tied for 27th could end up being crucial.
“There were a couple of times this year that I was really disappointed that I didn’t win, but this definitely makes up for it.”
With a HotelPlanner Tour card now secured, he’s effectively got a free roll of the dice at DP World Tour Q-School Stage Two later this month and he has a year of experience on the HotelPlanner Tour under his belt if Q-School doesn’t go the way he hopes.
“Yeah, hopefully I’ll end up skipping it and go straight to the main tour, but if not, then at least I’m a little bit more familiar with it having played a year on it because I’ve often tended to struggle with new environments.
“I think there will be a lot of the same courses, so I won’t be going into it totally blind.”
Robert Moran finished the week tied for 11th after a closing 69, while Hugh Foley produced his best round of the week on the final day and his 71 moved him up to solo 36th.
Both Moran and Foley will also be competing at Q-School Stage Two, so they may yet find themselves joining Mullarney on either the DP World or HotelPlanner Tours next year.
