About this time a year ago, Marco Penge of England was outside the top 400 in the world and had just secured his European Tour card by making a nervy putt on his final hole.

The last 12 months must feel like a blur.

The European Tour suspended him for two months for making small-time bets in 2022 on tournaments he didn’t play, before he had gone through the tour’s integrity program. Penge owned the mistake and vowed to never do it again.

Instead, he won in China for his first European tour title. He was runner-up in the Scottish Open, won in Denmark and captured his third title in the Spanish Open. That leaves him in range of Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai going into the final two events of the season.

Penge is 441 points behind McIlroy going into the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

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