On the rise: Sean Crocker

It has been quite the campaign for Sean Crocker in 2018. The American’s first-ever European Challenge Tour start came ten events down the Road to Ras Al Khaimah, at the Hauts de France Golf Open, where he missed the cut by five shots.

In his next two outings the best he could manage was a tied 36^thplace finish, as he went into The 147^thOpen Championship struggling to find form.

The 22 year old altered the course of his season, and perhaps his career, when he rose to has high as sixth place during the third round at Carnoustie. Although he eventually finished in a tie for 47^th, Crocker only took positives from a made cut and a fleeting moment in the mix at his Major Championship debut.

“I got a lot of confidence out of The Open because going into it I was really struggling with my game,” he said. “At one stage I got to tied sixth on the third day, and that gave me the confidence to know that if I go play the golf I want to go play, I can do it, which was huge considering I had been struggling for a while leading in to it.”

Since that maiden Major start, Crocker’s play has been nothing short of spectacular. Travelling from Scotland to Austria, he rattled off rounds of 65-66 to take the 36-hole lead at the Euram Bank Open.  Despite not converting the win, the Florida resident had successfully made his first splash on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah with his tied-third place finish.

Fast forward two months to the Kazakhstan Open presented by ERG, one of the most lucrative tournaments on the Challenge Tour International Schedule, where Crocker used a course-record of ten under par 62 on Moving Day to finish, once again, in a tie for third place, and jump from the 79^thposition on the Rankings to 38^th.

After a quick trip back to the United States to re-charge his batteries, the young man originally from Zimbabwe recorded yet another third-place result, this time without having to share, at the Hainan Open.

Now, with only two events remaining on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah, Crocker finds himself occupying the 17^thspot — tantalisingly close to the coveted top 15.

In search of his first Challenge Tour victory and finding a seemingly more threatening form each week, the University of Southern California graduate will be one player to keep an eye on as the Road to Ras Al Khaimah becomes all-business ahead of this week’s Foshan Open.