Dermot McElroy ties for fourth with Jonny Caldwell in Scottish Challenge to jump 56 places in top 90

The top 90 in the Road to Mallorca standings after the Scottish event are exempt from first-stage qualifying, which gets underway on August 27.

Caldwell (40) was already exempt as a past winner on the DP World Tour. But McElroy (31) needed to make a move before the first of two top-90 cuts-off dates by making a closing birdie in a bogey-free, four-under 67 to jump 56 places in the standings to 69th.

He tied for fourth on 12-under par with Caldwell, who shot a bogey-free 68, ten strokes behind runaway winner Brandon Robinson-Thompson.

The Englishman (31) led by four shots heading into the final round and never looked in danger of being caught as he made six birdies and a solitary bogey for a five-under 66 to win by eight shots from Denmark’s Hamish Brown on 22-under.

“I’m a little lost for words at the moment,” said Robinson-Thompson, who came close to retaining his Irish Challenge title when he finished third at The K Club eight days ago.

“Winning is great, but winning by eight is something else. I’ve always felt I had something in me like this. The margin of victory is just the icing on the cake, but it means I’m doing some really good stuff.

“It wasn’t all plain sailing. I was struggling to find the face towards the end of the front nine, but as the round went on, I just got more comfortable, and the last four or five holes, I strung some good shots together and made some nice putts.

“Finishing like that to seal the deal was really nice.

“Maybe you could call it redemption for last week. I didn’t do a whole lot wrong in Ireland, I felt like it was all there.

“Coming into this week, I wouldn’t have predicted this exactly, but I knew I was doing the right stuff.

Conor O’Rourke shot a bogey-free 69 to finish 59th on one-under, but at 265th in the Road to Mallorca, he has work to do to make the top 125 and secure Challenge Tour privileges in 2025.

Portmarnock’s Conor Purcell fell from fourth to sixth following his missed cut but remains in position to make the top 20 who will win DP World Tour cards.