EDDIE Pepperell is confident losing his European Tour card is just a “hiccup” after hopes of a late-season surge fell short.

A double-bogey at the final hole saw the Abingdon golfer miss the cut at the Portugal Masters, which was the final event of the regular season.

It meant Pepperell narrowly missed out on retaining his guaranteed place on the elite circuit for 2017 after four seasons.

The 25-year-old admits it was initially difficult to handle, but has no complaints over the 114th place finish in the rankings.

“I was pretty gutted when I came off the course,” he said.

“I was shocked and I didn’t want to talk to anyone for a few minutes because I was worried I might cry.

“I was absolutely fine after that, it’s just the way it is.

“Anyone who says ‘that final hole cost Eddie his card’ is wrong.

“If you look at my form from August you’d have to say missing eight of my last nine cuts has cost me my card, no question about it.

“That’s really bad form no matter who you are.

“But there are reasons for that and I’m not afraid of them.”

Pepperell had finished inside the top 50 on tour for the last two seasons, but struggled to maintain the form this year.

A change of coach did not solve the problems and a barren run saw him go back to basics in the last month in a bid to get out of trouble.

It just failed to come off, meaning Pepperell will travel to Spain next month to compete for one of 25 cards available at the final stage of Qualifying School.

It does not faze the Frilford Heath member, whose ranking for 2016 will still get him entry into some of the smaller European Tour events next year.

He said: “The lucky position I’m in compared to a lot of people at Q School is I know I can perform really well on the European Tour.

“I know if all parts of my game are there or thereabouts I can come very close to winning – not just small events but big ones.

“These things happen to very good players.

“Robert Karlsson lost his card and two years later he won the Order of Merit.

“It happened to Louis Oosthuizen and a few years later he won The Open.

“I still feel like I can become a great player, it’s just a little hiccup and a learning experience at the end of the day.”