MARTIN LeMesurier put one foot through the door into the European Tour after his record-breaking victory in the Clearstream Interational Luxembourg Open last night.
The win, LeMesurier's second on the European Challenge Tour this summer, takes the Waterside golfer to the top of the rankings with earning of 62,150 euros.
A top 15 finish in the order of merit guarantees a place on next year's main European Tour, and considering last year's 15th finisher earned 47,000 euros, LeMesurier has almost certainly made it.
To do it as early as June is astonishing, and in many ways the 26-year-old Brokenhurst Manor clubman has emulated Poole's Lee James who rubber-stamped his passport into European with a win in Luxembourg a year ago.
But LeMesurier did it in more spectacular style. He finished with a 23-under-par 265, two ahead of Scotsman Greg Hutcheon, but not before creating two Challenge Tour records along the way.
The first one came on Friday when LeMesurier, below, created a new 36-hole aggregate record for the Challenge Tour - a breathtaking 128 after two opening rounds of 64.
But he wasn't finished there. On Friday night the man from Blackfield established a new 54-hole mark of 194 after a third round 66.
Amazingly, Hutcheon was still only three shots behind him. The Scot had opened up with a 63 and followed it with 68 and 66, so there was plenty to go play for going into the last round.
On a hot, clammy energy-sapping day, LeMesurier did well to get to the turn in 34, but he couldn't find a birdie on the back nine and dropped his first shot of the tournament at the 17th where he three putted.
It still left him a two-shot cushion over Hutcheon but he admitted: "The temperature was as high as 43 degrees at the 14th, this was my third tournament in a row and I was starting to feel pretty exhausted.
"I was six up on Greg at halfway but he came back with a few birdies and I knew that if I hit a poor drive over the last couple of holes I would be in trouble. Fortunately I didn't but the closing stretch was hard.
"I just feel chuffed I have won again, that I've gone top of the rankings and that I'm within sight of my tour card for next season."
LeMesurier hasn't been out of the top ten in his five tournaments this year, and with two wins, a second, fourth and eighth places to his credit, the former Hampshire amateur champion has set the Challenge Tour alight.
Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen won his first European Tour title when he lifted the Diageo Championship trophy at Gleneagles. Matt Blackey, from Southampton, had a closing round of 72 to finish in a tie for 71st place.
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