Battle on for Tour School hopefuls

More than any other week, this is the one that epitomises the disparity that exists in the world of professional golf. Starting today at five venues in England, France and Germany, the first stage of the PGA European Tour qualifying school takes place when would-be tour players, among them 26 Irish golfers, take the first fledgling steps towards a possible tour card for the 2004 season.

It's a dog-eat-dog world where the initial financial rewards are minuscule, and even less for those that don't make it.

In stark contrast, later this week, the €4.4 million Dunhill Links Championship will take place at St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie. A pro-am event, it features celebrities from sports and showbusiness and those businessmen rich enough to buy a place in the field. Among those playing are Vijay Singh, who leads the US Tour moneylist with $5.7 million in earnings this year, and Ernie Els, who tops the European Tour's money list with €2.4 million.

Indeed, a fact that money really does talk is that the top eight players from the European Tour's Order of Merit - including Padraig Harrington, the defending champion - are included in the field. The nuisance of six-hours plus rounds over the first three days, when players alternate courses, is something that, on this occasion, will be put up with.

For those playing in the first stage of Tour School, survival is the only instinct that matters. There will be 30 survivors from the five courses - Five Lakes, Chart Hills and Carden Park in England, Golf de Moliets in France and Golf-Und Land-Club in Cologne, Germany - who will advance to the second stage of Tour School in five weeks time and go through the whole lottery again before moving on to the ultimate stage, final qualifying in November.

As those teeing up in the Dunhill Links will attest, the rewards for those who make it to full tour card status can be immense. And that is what drives on those who will seek to emerge from the 72-holes strokeplay over the next four days.

The Irish contingent are a motley crew, ranging from those who have only recently discarded their amateur status - including Colm Moriarty, a Walker Cup player, and Justin Kehoe, a member of last week's Home Internationals winning team - and those who have retained their amateur status, like Walker Cup player Noel Fox, but who have adopted a wait-and-see approach by playing in the qualifying stages before deciding whether or not the professional life is really what they want.

But there are also some seasoned, hardened professionals who are back again to go through the entire process all over again. One of the them is Richie Coughlan, who once upon a time held tour cards for the US Tour and the European Tour but who most recently has spent his time playing on the Canadian Tour, and another is David Higgins, who first joined the European Tour in 1995 but who lost his card in 2001 and has spent his time rehabilitating his game on the Irish PGA region circuit. Likewise, Raymond Burns, a former tour member, is seeking to work his way back.

In all, there are 26 Irish players competing in the first stage of qualifying school: Coughlan, Higgins, Mark Murphy, Chris Devlin, Paddy Gribben, Danny Sugrue, Damian Mooeny, Connor Mallon, Ciaran McMonagle and Eoin Barton play at Five Lakes; Eamon Brady, Timmy Rice, Gavin McNeill and Eoin Feely play at Chart Hills; Padraig Dooley, Davy Jones, Kehoe, Michael Collins, Moriarty, Gavin Lunny, Burns, Jim Carvill, Fox and Michael Hoey are at Carden Park; while David Carroll and Melvyn Flanagan play at Golf de Moliets. There are no Irish playing at Cologne.

Those who do make it through the first stage will move on to three venues in France and Spain. Peralada in Spain and St Cyprien in France are traditional second stage venues, but the intended third course - the PGA Golf de Catalunya - has suffered badly over the past few months with excessive heat and the tour has decided to move to Torre Mirona near Figueres in northern Spain.

If, for the most part, these are new steps being taken over the coming days by fledgling professionals and those aspiring to claim a tour card, the same can not be said for those playing in the Dunhill Links Championship, the richest regular tour event - away from the majors and the WGC tournaments - on the European Tour.

The title is being defended by Harrington, who missed the cut in last week's German Masters, while Darren Clarke, who is closest to Ernie Els in the race to top the Order of Merit, brings the hottest form of his season to the Scottish links. Des Smyth has also decided to return to this side of the pond, a slight diversion from his pickings on the US Champions Tour, and others playing include Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell and Ronan Rafferty.

Importantly for Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy - who are both fighting to stay in the top-60 on the money list, which brings with it an invite to play in the season-ending Volvo Masters in Valderrama - they have been extended sponsor's invites to play this week.

The field has also been strengthened by the presence of Shaun Micheel, the US PGA champion. The event marks his competitive debut in Europe. "

Playing links golf will be a new challenge for me," insisted Micheel. "The courses in Scotland are very different to those we play in the United States and I look forward to the challenge of hard, fast fairways and pot bunkers. It has always been an ambition of mine to play the Old Course at St Andrews."

Apart from the big-names golfers, some sporting celebrities playing in the team event are Bobby Charlton, Kenny Dalgleish, Gary Lineker, Ian Botham, Zinzan Brooke, Nigel Mansell and Steve Redgrave. Irish businessman JP McManus, who won the team title in partnership with Harrington last year, again teams up with the Dubliner.

EUROPEAN ORDER OF MERIT - Irish positions: 2nd, D Clarke €1,930,143; 5th, P Harrington €1,230,469; 27th, P McGinley €609,171; 52nd, P Lawrie €335,917; 54th, G Murphy €331,148; 83rd, G McDowell €221,909; 137th, D McGrane €121,152; 171st, R Rafferty €54,911; 201st, P Walton €25,539.