CADDIES ROLE:And there's a few opportunities for hopeful young caddies too, as the 'available with tour experience' ads seem to indicate, writes COLIN BYRNE

IF YOU are not Shane Lowry and you don’t barge on to the European Tour during a wet weekend in Co Louth by winning the Irish Open you might have to consider the long road to a Tour card, through the Challenge Tour.

Another of Ireland’s exceptional young talents secured his playing rights through invitations to play on the Tour and amassing enough money in so doing to get into the top 115 on the Order of Merit.

This entails aligning yourself to a good management group who can access to enough invitations to events for their hopeful in order to secure their tour card. This is how Rory McIlroy did it.

The other obvious avenue to your playing rights is by finishing well in the Tour School at the end of each year. If you don’t finish in the top 25 you may find yourself in the holding area between the main tour and the secondary Challenge Tour.

Last week Ireland hosted the Challenge of Ireland, presented by Moyvalley in Co Kildare. The heady days of vast prize funds at the European Open in The K Club and the global spectacle of the Ryder Cup at the same venue have long gone and the staging of professional golf events in this country would appear to aspire to more modest occasions.

I eased into the spacious car park at Moyvalley and found a slot four rows back just half an hour before the leaders were due to tee off last Saturday. What a pleasant contrast to parking in a swamp and being bussed in from another county to the course. I wandered into the clubhouse without credentials and there was a sense of calm about the place which got me wondering had I got my dates mixed up.

I drifted into the locker room and was greeted by the soft sound of slumber from a caddie curled up in a discrete ball with his head cradled on a shower towel. Ah yes, I thought, I am definitely at a tour event. In the foyer outside the main bar area a couple of caddies were tapping away on their lap-tops and speaking on skype to family back home.

In the restaurant the friendly and unstressed waiter suggested I should have been here yesterday, it was bedlam, he had served 230 lunches. I was struggling to decide where to sit because there were so many vacant places. A family with young children sat lunching beside me, seemingly there for the food with the golf incidental.

Outside I witnessed two angry men with blue over par numbers beside their names on what turned out to be their last hole. The advantage of a dearth of spectators is you can whack a rake or toss a flag stick to relieve tension without anyone to observe your little tantrum.

I got the feeling that perhaps the boys get away with a bit more attitude on the Challenge Tour until I had a chat with Jose Maria Zamorra, tournament director.

Zorro maintained the Challenge Tour is where the authorities get a real opportunity to educate and groom aspiring young golfers. They have a rule that no hats are allowed in the clubhouse. Try enforcing that on the main tour and you would probably be sued by a sponsor for denying exposure. There is a respect and a courtesy that some of the egos on the main tour have left behind.

Despite the Challenge Tour being the kindergarten for the big school of the European Tour it seems you are never too old to learn. I talked to Nicolas Colsaerts from Belgium who played the main tour for years and is now reduced to invites on the secondary tour.

Despite the serious consequences there is a casual nature about these events that took me by surprise. As Colsaerts chatted freely I realised he was about to tee off in 10 minutes time. Players on the main tour wouldn’t even look at you so close to show time.

As I wandered over to the range to see what type of balls they were hitting (good Titleists) I ran into Robert Coles (eventual winner), another Tour veteran who has tread the crooked line between main and challenge tours. He was also in a chatty mood just moments before he was due on the first tee.

Peter Baker, Ryder Cup player and multiple tournament winner, was out on the course and he had obviously taken the “crowd” with him. There must have been two handfuls of heads around the fourth green watching as he grafted over a birdie putt.

With €150,000 in the pot, aspirants are not playing to get rich, rather playing for the chance to get rich. There was €24,000 on offer for the winner and 10th spot got you €3,300. With players expenses probably running higher on the Challenge without the courtesy car, players lounge and free food, the costs are not less with a lot less of a financial lure. So it is more common to see even the leading players carrying or pulling their own bags and if they do take caddies it is obviously a serious financial commitment or a friend helping out.

Markus Brier, the amiable Austrian tour player, combines the resources of his sponsors to host a Challenge event in which he plays, in his native land. It is his way of giving something back to the sport that has served him so well. Henrik Stenson has taken a step further in altruism in his native Sweden by getting involved with the Challenge Tour event staged there in a few weeks time. He had put a lot of his own money into one of the biggest prize funds on the Tour at €300,000. He also stages an exhibition with himself and Adam Scott before the event.

The Challenge Tour is a breeding ground for the future hopes of the European Tour. It seems to provide a few opportunities for hopeful caddies too, I spotted caddie “available with tour experience” advertisements on the notice board. Having all the appearance of a tour event with scoreboards and roped off fairways, the Challenge provides the drama of real golf without the hassle. It is a wonderful opportunity for young players to hone their skills as a precursor to the bigger and bolder European Tour.