Two-time tournament winner Justin Harding has been as high as 42nd on the Official World Golf Ranking, but says he'll find it tough to keep his DP World Tour card this season due to a lack of starts afforded to him.
Harding won the 2019 Qatar Masters and 2021 Kenya Open, but a serious hip injury saw him play just five times in 2023 and saw his season ended in March.
After also missing the end of the 2022 season with the same problem, Harding was hoping for things to look up in 2024 but says he will only have a limited number of starts to try and keep his card.
The South African is not playing at the Joburg Open in his homeland as the 2024 DP World Tour season kicks off this week, and is unhappy with the number of events he's allowed to play in.
“Albeit I’ve only played 5 DP World Tour events spanning what will now be 3 seasons and 15 months the tour seems determined to give me just 15 events to keep my card this upcoming season," Harding wrote on social media.
Harding says he must seek permission from the DP World Tour to go and play on the Asian Tour in the meantime, but will probably have to wait until the Challenge Tour in February to make his return to tournament golf.
It's a complicated situation and one which is frustrating the 37-year-old, who is eager to get back into action but knows that from the very start he'll be under pressure to perform.
"Frustratingly that decision affects my return to competitive golf (I'm not at present allowed to play Asian Tour without permission and/or further events being deducted from the 15) and as such will likely only be able to return to competition in February with some Challenge Tour events."
Update: pic.twitter.com/DBla2aLFeoNovember 23, 2023
Harding played in the inaugural LIV Golf event at Centurion in 2022 and the second tournament, but never signed a deal with the Saudi-backed outfit.
Now, after so long out of action with injury, he's itching to get back into the swing of things but may not find it easy to compete in the standings with limited starts available to him.
