Sobienie Jeziory/Poland − Sobienie Jeziory/Poland – At the end he played one last tap-in for a birdie, finishing the Deutsche Bank Polish Masters Pro Golf Tour Championship with a 72 round, thus sharing second place and topping up his points account with another 2,600 points. Marcel Schneider, born on 6 February 1990 in Bietigheim-Bissingen, is the Pro Golf Tour 2014 Champion. He confidently secured the championship title with 29,666 points in total. Besides tournament successes at the Open Mogador and Open Madaef early in the season in Morocco, he recorded three second places and another seven top 10 results, among others. "I am over the moon that I am now the number 1. My aim was to finish in the top 5 again here in Poland. At the end it was so close again that the title was even up for grabs", says Schneider. As a result, the 24-year old is promoted to the European Challenge Tour in totally confident fashion in his second professional season. After 20 tournaments he had a lead of 5,783 points on the number 2, Sebastian Heisele. Schneider: "My game was considerably more consistent this year than in 2013. First and foremost, I didn't really have any more bad odd rounds but had a handle on my score."

While Schneider is celebrating the championship and looking forward to the European Challenge Tour 2015 tournaments full of confidence, the Dutchman Floris de Vries gave himself a very special farewell gift by winning the tournament in Poland. The 25-year old is ending his tour pro career and starting to train as a golf instructor. "It is really wonderful to have won here again. However, the win does not change my decision", says de Vries. The man from Apeldoorn started his professional career on the Pro Golf Tour in 2009, back then he won the Bohemia Franzensbad Classic straight away, rose to number 5 in the final ranking list on the Challenge Tour 2010 and progressed straight from there onto the European Tour 2011. However, he could not hold his own there and returned to the Pro Golf Tour where he provided the most stylish imaginable farewell to his tour pro career with the win at the season final late on Saturday afternoon. After rounds of 69, 69 and 71 strokes on the final day he secured the title with 4 under par, cashing in on EUR 6,000 prize money again and leaving the tour with his head held high. For a long time he delivered a thrilling head to head duel mainly with Stephan Gross but then a strong birdie on hole 17 gave him the decisive lead. At the end of the day he set himself apart from his runners-up by one stroke.

While de Vries is saying farewell to tournament golf, a new stage of life is also starting for Sebastian Heisele, Sean Einhaus and Max Kramer as for Marcel Schneider; they too are moving up to the European Challenge Tour 2015, playing in the second league of professional golf in Europe next year. Einhaus managed this at high speed: the 2014 season was his first full year on the tour, he won EUR 22,859 in 19 tournaments. "I started the season without any major expectations but I am of course delighted to be getting started again very soon", says the 24-year old from Borken. He was able to claim two wins this year with the Haugschlag NÖ Open and Praforst Pro Golf Tour Fulda. Recently, Einhaus has struggled a bit with his long game but he is confident that he will get a grip on it again together with his trainer Ted Long during the winter weeks.

Sebastian Heisele has managed promotion on his third attempt. The 26-year old who lives in Dubai and Dillingen came eighth in the order of merit in 2012 and ended up in 22nd place in 2013. He only started the 2014 season in April but soon won the Open Dar Es Salam and picked up eleven top 10 results during the course of the year, including another tournament win at the Gut Bissenmoor Classic. With just 13 entries he collected 23,883 points and thus 2nd place in the order of merit. "It was totally the right thing to choose the Pro Golf Tour once again", says Heisele. He now hopes "to also grow into the Challenge Tour, play a respectable season there and keep the ticket first." Max Kramer knows only too well that this is not a foregone conclusion. The 30-year old from Fulda is being promoted to the Challenge Tour for the fourth time already this year after 2008, 2010 and 2012.

The battle for 4th place in the ranking and associated fourth and last promotion ticket developed into a real thriller in Poland. Before the tournament, just 113 ranking list points separated Kramer in 4th place and Alexander Knappe from Brilon in 5th place. Based on this, Knappe would definitely have to finish ahead of Kramer in the last tournament of the season to still contest him for the ticket into the second league. And initially everything was going in favour of Knappe: in round 1 both of them played in one group, fought tooth and nail over 18 holes. At the end Knappe (70) had a four stroke lead on Kramer (74). On the second day both recorded 70 rounds which meant Kramer was now under pressure on the final day of having to catch up at least four strokes on Knappe. "The pressure was huge", says Kramer. "I was really nervous." As regardless of the promotion issue it was about no less than their professional future. Kramer: "Initially, I would have stopped playing tour golf and perhaps started a trainer qualification." The fact that he can still play in more tournaments is thanks to his awesome 67 final round. With this he took six strokes off Knappe on the last day of the tournament, shared 5th place with the Dutchman Reinier Saxton and the Frenchman Kenny Le Sager and secured fourth position in the order of merit. His relief afterwards was massive: "I am very happy that I can give it another go. I will now work very intensively with my mental coach Nils Bühring and my trainer Marco Schmuck. My short game in particular needs improving." A training and travel community has also been secured in any case: Sebastian Heisele is also trained by PGA golf professional Marco Schmuck.

The Pro Golf Tour 2014 enjoyed a worthy finale on an excellent golf course in Poland, which challenged the golfers on the final day in particular. Some strong winds made the par result a challenge. The 2014 season's 20 order of merit tournaments have now been played and yet the 2014 Pro Golf Tour year is not quite over yet: for the first time in the history of the Pro Golf Tour its own Qualifying School stands on the agenda on 13th and 14th October in Rheine, Germany. For the players it's then all about securing the best qualifying entries for the 2015 season to then secure a chance of a promotion ticket for the Challenge Tour 2016.