During the Walker Cup at Portmarnock in 1991, many astute observers were confident they could identify the outstanding players in either team; those with an obvious future in professional ranks. Even the US skipper, Jim Gabrielsen, was reasonably sure that 19-year-old David Duval was not among them.

Indeed after Duval lost 2 and 1 to reigning English Strokeplay champion Gary Evans in singles combat on the opening day, Gabrielsen decided to omit him from the second day's singles, in favour of David Eger. The fortunes of Evans and Duval since then, make fascinating reading.

Last weekend, Duval gained his second victory of the year, claiming top prize of $360,000 in the Houston Open. Meanwhile, in the rain-shortened Italian Open, Evans finished in a share of 47th place for £2,500.

Though he turned professional in 1993, Duval's activities were confined mainly to the Nike Tour on which he won twice, in the Wichita Open and the Tour Championship. It meant that he played a total of only 11 regular tour events in the US between then and the end of 1994.

From the beginning of 1995, however, his coffers have been swollen by no less than $4,984,629. He has gained five US Tour victories in 13 events since the beginning of last October and is the current leader of the money list with earnings of $1,240,805 so far this year.

Evans turned professional in 1991, two years earlier than Duval. Since then, however, his best performance was to finish runnerup in the 1992 Turespana Masters; his career tournament earnings are a relatively modest £468,917 and he is currently 85th in the Order of Merit with £16,026 from 10 events.

So, the moral of those comparative figures is that you simply can't tell for sure who is likely to make the better transition from amateur to professional ranks.

The only assessment of Duval's game from 1991 that remains valid today is his tendency to be somewhat erratic. When winning in Tucson in February, he ran up a seven on the homeward stretch by hooking a drive out of bounds.

The same flaw was in evidence at Houston where, on the treacherous 18th on Sunday, he again hooked his drive, this time into the middle of a clump of trees. From there, however, he showed excellent course management by electing to take his punishment while hitting a short iron back into play. And after playing a sandwedge onto the green, his reward was to sink a 15-foot, leftto-right breaking putt for a most improbable, closing par.

This was Duval's first outing since finishing in a share of second place behind Mark O'Meara in the US Masters at Augusta National last month. Scoring was generally low in the final round at Houston. For instance, Dave Stockton Jnr, who is relying on sponsors' invitations in the absence of exempt status, made significant progress into a share of sixth place with a final round of 68.

Against that background, Ireland's two challengers, Keith Nolan and Richard Coughlan were entitled to be disappointed with closing efforts of 71 and 72 respectively. This reflects a serious flaw in their competitive make-up and could scupper their chances of retaining exempt status at the end of the year.

Coughlan was making his seventh cut in 10 events, including the Pebble Beach Pro-Am which will not be completed until August. Of the six other tournaments in which he has qualified, however, he has broken 70 in the final round only once - with a 69 in the Hawaiian Open in February.

Otherwise, Coughlan's final rounds have been: 72 (Tucson), 71 (Los Angeles), 75 (Doral), 74 (Greensboro) and now 72 at Houston. Meanwhile, Nolan has so far failed to break 70 on the final day of a tournament. His closing rounds have been: 71 (Tuscon), 70 (Honda Classic) and 71 (Houston). Like Coughlan, he is set to complete the Pebble Beach event in August.

Coughlan and Nolan are currently 166th and 183rd in the US money list with less than $46,000 between them. To retain their cards, they must be inside the top125 at the end of the year and a measure of the challenge is that Steve Jurgensen, currently holding down the critical 125th position, has earnings of $70,504.

Meanwhile, Nick Faldo seems to have found a solution to his putting woes - by switching to a nine iron. The move led to a level-par final round of 71 for 13th place in the Macau Open on the Asian Tour last weekend. Faldo, who thought of the idea after an early-morning practice routine, used the nine iron on six greens and sank three birdie putts. "I was putting (with the nine iron) on the carpet this morning and I had a good average with it," said the 40-year-old Englishman who shot a closing round of 83 - his worst ever on the US Tour - to finish last in the MCI Classic and has now gone seven competitive rounds without breaking par.

"It made me realise my putter is not in synch with me (whatever that means), so at least that's something positive." Most of the leading Irish players will be absent from this week's £350,000 Turespana Masters, which starts at Santa Ponsa, Majorca, on Thursday. But there will still be five challengers - Philip Walton, Raymond Burns, Francis Howley, David Higgins and Cameron Clark.

Walton, currently languishing in 131st position in the Order of Merit with earnings of only £6,695 from seven tournaments this season, has his own reasons for going to the modestly-valued event. "I need to make a few more cuts and get something going," he said yesterday.

The former Ryder Cup player was reflecting on only three cuts made so far this season and a failure to get into the top-30 of any tournament. He intends to revert to the standard putter which he used when shooting a second round of 69 in Italy last weekend.

"I had my broom-handle putter re-gripped during the Spanish Open in Barcelona and it has been thrown totally out of balance," he said. "Putting is all about feel so I had no option other than to give the short one another try. But I'm happy with the way I putted in Italy."

With the exception of the Madeira Island Open on June 18th to 21st, he will be playing in every tournament from now until the Murphy's Irish Open on July 2nd to 5th. Though compatriots Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley are already in the field, he has yet to enter the Loch Lomond World Ivitational a week later, when a rather special hole-in-one prize will be on offer.

The sponsors will pay $100,000 into a Standard Life bank account on behalf of the competitor having the first hole-in-one at the 205-yard 17th during the final round of the tournament.

In their determination to justify the world invitational tag, officials have already lined up 13 challengers from the USPGA Tour, including the holder, Tom Lehman, Stewart Cink, Larry Mize, Glen Day and Mark Brooks.