Burns fired up for Dunhill place

Once you've tasted life as a tour professional, it's hard to sit at home and not ache for a second chance. And attempting to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of professional golf without any kind of tour card is an even more difficult proposition.

However, former European Tour player Raymond Burns remains undeterred and is seeking to use the weekly qualifying events in South Africa in a bid to rekindle his playing rights.

Having failed to qualify for last week's South African Open, the 28-year-old Banbridge player will today seek to emerge from the qualifying lottery at Benoui Country Club - one of three courses being used as qualifying venues - and earn a place in the field for this week's Dunhill Championship at Houghton Golf Club in Johannesburg. The Dunhill is jointly sanctioned by the European Tour and the Southern Africa Tour.

Burns, who won the Challenge Tour Order of Merit in 1994, and who held his full card on the European Tour until losing it during the 1999 season, is currently without any kind of tour card. However, the South African circuit is unique in that it offers players the chance to pre-qualify and so it is that Burns is one of five Irish players who will attempt to emerge from 18-hole qualifying today with around 14 cards up for grabs.

Ciarán McMonagle and Gavin McNeill, both former Irish amateur close champions, are competing for their places in the field at Centurion Golf Club while Burns, Padraig Dooley and Tim Rice are all attempting to claim a place in the €750,000 tournament at Benoui.

Graeme McDowell, who had originally entered to play in the Dunhill, has withdrawn, which leaves just three Irishmen - Gary Murphy, who secured a top-10 finish in the South African Open, Peter Lawrie and South Africa-based James Loughnane - confirmed starters for an event which will be defended by England's Justin Rose.

Rose will attempt to become the first player to defend the Dunhill Championship and also try to continue the trend of young winners. Rose was 21 when winning the event in 2002 while Adam Scott was only 20 when succeeding in 2001.

Rose's triumph last year was the first of four victories worldwide - only Tiger Woods and Ernie Els with six wins respectively entered the winners circle more than the Englishman.

The Dunhill championship has a history of players making the event their debut European Tour victory with Rose (2002), Scott (2001), Anthony Wall (2000) and Sven Strüver (1996) all falling into that category.

Padraig Harrington, meanwhile, has slipped down one place from seventh to eighth in the latest world rankings.

The Dubliner - on holidays in the Caribbean - remains, however, at number one in the 2003 Order of Merit despite Trevor Immelman's maiden tour win in the South African Open, where he beat Tim Clark in a play-off. Harrington is not due to resume on the circuit until the Malaysian Open next month, which will start a four-week run that also takes in the world matchplay in La Costa, the Dubai Desert Classic and the Qatar Masters.

Irish placings in European Tour Order of Merit: 1, P Harrington €247,967; 35, G Murphy €14,900; 46, P Lawrie €12,127; 74, G McDowell €6,314; 113, P Dooley €1,143; 118, T Rice €1,137.

Official World Rankings: 1, T Woods (USA) 15.42; 2, E Els (SA) 7.80; 3, P Mickelson (USA) 7.60); 4, R Goosen (SA) 6.03; 5, D Toms (USA) 5.94; 6, S Garcia (Sp) 5.93; 7, V Singh (Fij) 5.67; 8, P Harrington (Ire) 5.41; 9, D Love III (USA) 4.53; 10, C Montgomerie (Scot) 4.26; 11, C DiMarco (USA) 4.18; 12, J Furyk (USA) 4.07; 13, N Price (Zim) 4.07; 14, R Mediate (USA) 3.83; 15, J Leonard (USA) 3.56; 16, A Cabrera (Arg) 3.55; 17, D Duval (USA) 3.51; 18, B Langer (Ger) 3.49; 19, R Beem (USA) 3.43; 20, R Allenby (Aus) 3.37.

Other Irish placings - 24, D Clarke 3.20; 101, P McGinley 1.42; 176, G McDowell 0.85.