IRELAND'S graduates from last November's Qualifying School will have to wait until later next month for their first taste of European Tour competition this season. The problem is that there is room for only 69 Tour representatives in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Singapore on January 25th and 60 in the Heineken Classic in Perth a week later.

Mark McCormack's International Management Group, with which Padraig Harrington has signed a three year contract, have succeeded in getting invitations into those two events for another client, Steve Webster. The 20 year old English player carries the impressive credentials, however, of having led the Tour School and then won the Apollo Challenge at San Roque last week, when Harrington was tied second.

The only Irish challengers in Singapore and Perth will be Darren Clarke, Ronan Rafferty, Paul McGinley and Raymond Burns. Harrington and fellow graduates Francis Howley, David Higgins and John McHenry are aiming for the South African PGA Championship in Johannesburg, starting on February 15th. Jimmy Heggarty, the fifth Irish qualifier, has yet to outline his plans.

Harrington, who has just returned from. San Roque where he was joined by Howley, estimates that he will need £25,000 in sponsorship to cover expenses for his rookie season. "I hope to play about 24 tournaments at an estimated cost of £1,100 per tournament," he said. Given his status as a qualified accountant, one wouldn't dare argue with his sums.

A significant change in the Tour regulations for the coming season is the introduction of a one stroke penalty for slow play. This is a response to the amendment by the Royal and Ancient to Rule 6 whereby: "The committee may, in the conditions of a competition, lay down pace or play guidelines and in such a condition modify the penalty for a first offence in strokeplay to one stroke."

It has long been felt that a two stoke penalty or disqualification was too severe for a breach of this nature, with the result that the European Tour were prompted to opt for fines - a far from satisfactory compromise. The USPGA Tour, however, has been operating a one stroke sanction with splendid success for the last three years and their European counterparts are more than happy to follow suit, now that the move has R and A approval.

The new rule will be applied when players are put "under the watch." The first to play in a three ball will be allowed 55 seconds to complete his stroke and the second and third competitors will be limited to 40 seconds per stroke. On the green, the time permitted will be 60 seconds for the first to putt and 40 seconds for the others.

Players will be permitted two breaches while being timed but a third offence will result in a one stroke penalty, in addition to a fine of £500. A fifth breach will mean a two stroke penalty and a fine of £1,000 and a seventh offence will result in disqualification.

"Slow play is not as big a problem as some people think," said John Paramor, director of European Tour operations. "But our hope is to eliminate it altogether."

Meanwhile, there was no need to put the watch on Phil Mickelson on the 72nd green of the Nortel Open in Tucson last weekend, when he successfully defended the title with a 14 under par aggregate of 274. The 25 year old had no need to take out his putter alter chipping into the hole for a closing birdie and a two stroke victory over Bob Tway.

At that moment, one couldn't help thinking of how golfing fortune tends to level itself out. Here was Tway on the receiving end of a chip in, having himself perpetrated that outrageous, holed bunker shot on Greg Norman to capture the USPGA Championship of 1986.

Victory at Tucson National last year gave Mikelson the unique distinction having won the same tournament as an amateur (1991) and as a professional. Now, this latest success has given him his sixth Tour victory. Impressive as that may be for his age, it pales in comparison to the 17 tournament victories, including four "majors," which Jack Nicklaus had secured before his 26th birthday.

Indeed Mickelson also has to give best to Gene Littler, who could claim seven Tour wins as a 25 year old. Mickelson has until his 26th birthday on June 16th, however, to match that achievement and on recent form, including a 100 per cent record in the Ryder Cup, it would be foolhardy to bet against him.

Top prize of $225,000 last Sunday meant that he had earned more than half a million dollars from seven appearances in this tournament alone and two of those were as an amateur. In fact his victory in 1991 made him the first player to capture a USPGA Tour event before his 21st birthday, since Raymond Floyd won the St Petersburg Open in 1963.