Golf: Fewer than 40 in field for Roxburghe but Tour defends Q-School entry fee

THE European Tour has defended the entry fee for its Qualifying School despite attracting fewer than 40 players for next week’s stage one event in Scotland.

Held in recent years at Dundonald Links in Ayrshire, it has moved across the country to The Roxburghe, just outside Kelso, but, from 65 last season, the field has dropped to just 36 hopefuls.

They’ve had to cough up an entry fee of £1,350 and, even if they are successful in next week’s 72-hole test, a further ten rounds will still stand between them and the promised land that is the European Tour.

A total of just 25 Scots have entered the eight first-stage events being held across Europe over the next few weeks and, unlike recent years, that contingent includes only one amateur, namely Kirkhill’s Paul Shields.

His fellow Scotland squad member, James White, made it to the second stage 12 months ago but the Fifer has made no secret of the fact he wouldn’t be trying his luck again this year due to the cost involved.

Mike Stewart, the European Tour Qualifying School director, admitted he was disappointed with the size of next week’s field, especially for the event’s first visit to the Borders. He is adamant, however, it has nothing to do with the venue change and is expecting the overall total to drop from 777 last year to nearer the 700 mark this time around.

“The field at The Roxburghe is quite low but I don’t think that is a reflection on it,” Stewart told The Scotsman. “It is noticeable, for instance, that the field for the other first stage being held next week, at Ebreichsdorf in Austria, has dropped dramatically this year. I’m not sure why that is, to be honest, but it must be down to a conflict with other events [the final regular tournament of the season on the EuroPro Tour is taking place at Hunley Hall in North Yorkshire].

“Players, after all, are playing all over the place these days, be it on the EuroPro Tour, the Alps Tour or wherever. I think we will see some of those who are perhaps missing at The Roxburghe playing elsewhere over the next few weeks, though I am expecting the overall entry to be slightly down this year.”

Asked if he felt that had anything to do with the entry fee, Stewart added: “A few players mention it occasionally, claiming it is a bit steep. From our point of view, however, we have to cover the costs of running the Qualifying School. If we were to cut the entry fee to, say, £250, I guarantee we’d need another ten courses for the first stage. We’d have assistant professionals and amateurs all around the country saying ‘I fancy having a go at that’.

“What we are trying to achieve is to get the serious players trying to make a future playing the game. It’s those players we are looking at. It is not a hugely significant sum to be paying to try to play on a Tour where you can become a significant earner. The rewards are potentially enormous.” Joining Shields at The Roxburghe, where the event tees off on Tuesday, are a clutch of Tartan Tour campaigners, including Greig Hutcheon, Stephen Gray, Graham 
Fox, Scott Henderson and Neil Fenwick.

The field also includes Ted Innes Ker, who cut his golfing teeth on the Borders course, which is owned by his father, The Duke of Roxburghe, and earned a sponsor’s invitation for the Wales Open at Celtic Manor in June.