JC Ritchie didn’t set out to play a schedule on the HotelPlanner Tour this year, but one result provided the springboard for him to map out a successful route back to the DP World Tour.
After falling short of making the Rolex Grand Final supported by The R&A 12 months ago, the South African intended to prioritise his focus on competing on the Sunshine Tour in 2025.
Even after two top tens and a top 15 finish in the opening three events of the Road to Mallorca schedule – all on home soil – the plan didn’t change at first, until he came second at the UAE Challenge in April.
It was a result that prompted a shift in approach, one that has seen Ritchie go on to become a three-time winner this season on the HotelPlanner Tour and lead the Road to Mallorca Rankings ahead of this week’s season-ending Rolex Grand Final supported by The R&A.
“At the start of the season, I didn’t really know what I was going to get,” he said.
“I wasn’t planning on playing the HotelPlanner Tour for the year.
"I managed to have a really good finish in Ajman and that sort of forced me to focus on the HotelPlanner Tour for the rest of the season.
“It’s sort of turned out to be a dream year for me.”
With his playing rights back on the DP World Tour for next season secured, the 31-year-old only has more to gain this week at Club de Golf Alcanada, with a chance to become the first player since Kristoffer Broberg in 2012 to win four titles on the HotelPlanner Tour in one season.
Winning is a habit in sport, and Ritchie is after more success in Spain.
"The goal for the week is to try and win," he said. "I think that is sort of the only thing I can focus on.
"There is no incentive points wise for me, category wise.
"So, if I just focus on playing the best event I can [then] whatever comes I’ll deal with that."
Before the start of the 2025 season, Ritchie’s four HotelPlanner Tour victories had all come in his native South Africa.
But after winning first in Germany in July, proving to himself as much as anything what he was capable of, he then won his second and third titles of the campaign over back-to-back weeks in Portugal and Italy to seal automatic promotion.
"I think the biggest hurdle for me since I started playing in Europe, is a feeling that I didn’t know how to win in Europe," he said.
"I have obviously known how to win back home but bringing it here has been a hurdle for me to jump.
"Germany was a very special week for me in my career. I didn’t just manage to win, but I managed to win comfortably.
"It just proved to me that I can get the job done out here, similar to how I knew I could back home. To wrap up two more after that was more than a dream come true."
Since becoming a three-time winner, he has opted to remain competing on the HotelPlanner Tour, competing in the back-to-back events in China earlier this month.
But when he does come to make his DP World Tour season-opening appearance - likely at the Alfred Dunhill Championship - he believes he will do so with renewed confidence that he can continue to further his career.
"Being on the DP World Tour and having a fight to hopefully get on the PGA TOUR over the next couple years is the ultimate dream," he explained.
"For now, I will try to finish off this week with the best possible result I can and then hopefully try to focus on winning next year."
Ritchie is joined by countrymen Daniel van Tonder, Jovan Rebula and Wilco Nienaber in Spain.
Van Tonder is virtually assured a DP World Tour card thanks to his victories in the first two events of the season – the SDC Open and the MyGolfLife Open hosted by Pecanwood Estate – meaning he is 11th on the season-long Rankings.
But for Rebula and Nienaber, 22nd and 29th respectively, they know a stong performance is required.
“Starting the year out with no status, it’s a good thing for me to be here now and have a chance to get my hands on a DP World Tour card because that was the goal from the beginning,” said Rebula, the nephew of Ernie Els.
“These are always high-stake weeks and it’s a privilege to feel a little bit different at an event like this because there’s a lot on the line. It’s a good golf course and it suits me pretty well."
Nienaber, who won the NTT DATA Pro Am on home soil in February, added: “I’m feeling confident in the work I’ve done and am swinging it as good as ever.
"I know this course and that helps. But this week I can finish in the top 10 and it can be good enough, or I can finish in the top five it can’t be good enough depending on what the others guys do.
"I’ve made a few changes this year and I’m at peace with those. I haven’t had the results, but it will change at some point, so why not this week?”
