Doncaster teenager Joshua Berry qualifies for DP World Tour AGAIN, alongside Rotherham's Ben Schmidt

The gruelling six-round examination of nerve, skill and endurance that is the DP World Tour’s Qualifying School finale has been the breaking of many a professional golfer, except for this teenager from Doncaster who has twice proven to be its match.

A year ago Berry was a pressure-free amateur who survived the six rounds at Tarragona in Spain to earn one of the 20 spots on the continent’s elite circuit. After a rush to turn professional, Berry got into 17 tournaments in the 2024 season, making the cut in just three of them, forcing him back to the final stage of Qualifying School.

He made a steady start to the week and sat just outside the top 20 after five rounds, when severe weather in the region forced the final round to be postponed 24 hours to Thursday.

“We couldn’t do anything, the country was pretty much in lockdown,” said Berry. “So I just went to a few coffee shops and reflected on my game and it’s done me well having that rest and a day off.”

It certainly did. For Berry came out firing on day six, quickly erasing any doubt about what he would need to score by shooting an eight-under-par round of 63 to finish on 20-under par and in 10th place, comfortably inside the required number.

“At the start of the week, me and my dad said if you can get to 20-under par that’s going to have a really good chance and being 12-under going into the last round you’re not really thinking about shooting eight-under, but to do that, I’m over the moon with it,” he said.

“All the hard work that’s been done over the years I’m just super-pleased to make it through a second time.

“I played solid the last couple of weeks and I was just taking the positives out of each round and taking it one shot at a time.”

And Berry will take that mentality into his second season on the DP World Tour, as this time he looks to stay at that level.

“I’ll just take it one day at a time as I always do,” he said. “Whatever I get in I’ll go and play and see how I can do.”

He will be joined on the DP World Tour next season - which begins in Australia on Thursday - by Rotherham’s Ben Schmidt, a 21-year-old, who was a Brabazon and Carris Trophy winner in his amateur days and played for Yorkshire alongside Berry not so long ago.