Justin Harding is going back to school at the age of 38 this week as he takes on the daunting six-round, 108-hole challenge posed by the DP World Tour’s Qualifying School Final Stage on the Lakes and Hills Courses at Infinitum Golf in Tarragona, Spain.

Harding, who lost his full status on the tour this season as he returned after recovering from a long-term injury, is one of eight South Africans who are in the field which gets underway on Friday. He played what he could in the 2024 season on a medical extension, and he needs to get through the ordeal in Spain if he is to get back on to a circuit on which he is a two-time winner.

It takes places over six rounds and two courses, Infinitum Golf’s Lakes and Hills Courses. Each player in the 152-man field plays two rounds on each of the courses ahead of a 72-hole cut. The final two rounds will then see the remaining players battle it out to finish in the top 20, with the top 20 and ties earning playing privileges on the DP World Tour for next season.

The field contains 10 multiple winners from the DP World Tour, including Harding’s fellow-South African George Coetzee. Coetzee, like Harding, is on the comeback trail after long-term injury.

While the other South Africans in the field have not won on the DP World Tour, they have all won titles on the Sunshine Tour, and, in the cases of JC Ritchie and Wilco Nienaber, on the Challenge Tour too.

They are joined by Jonathan Broomhead, fresh off his third Sunshine Tour win inside this year, former South African PGA champion Rupert Kaminski, five-time Sunshine Tour winner Neil Schietekat, and two-time champion Justin Walters.

Also in the field are Sunshine Tour regulars Rhys Enoch of Wales who lives in Potchefstroom, and two-time Cape Town Open winner Benjamin Follett-Smith of Zimbabwe.