Two very different golf races enter the finishing straight in Madrid today - one to win the European Tour, the other to stay on it.
Following Lee Westwood's win in the World Match Play at Wentworth and Spain's repeat success at the Alfred Dunhill Cup at St Andrews, the Order of Merit battle resumes with the £586,000 sterling Turespana Masters at Club de Campo.
With Westwood taking another week off, the spotlight falls on Darren Clarke's bid for the win which will take him back to the top of the money list with three events to come. But Clarke himself has spared a thought for those at the other end of the ladder. This week's tournament and next week's Italian Open will decide whether the likes of Russell Claydon, Paul Eales and Mark Davis - all of them tour winners - avoid a return to the dreaded qualifying school next month.
"Ryder Cup pressure is the worst pressure, but trying to keep your card is close," said Clarke.
In 1991, his first season on the circuit, Clarke felt like celebrating when he won £3,451 for 14th place at the European Pro-celebrity tournament at Hoylake.
"It may not sound like a lot of money now, but it was worth a lot to me then," he said. Only 115 players retain tour cards each season and the performance enabled Clarke to finish 112th.
"There's a huge amount of pressure. You're trying to keep your job for the following year and if you come through it, it stands you in really good stead."
While Claydon and Eales have to try to cope with the same pressure this week as Clarke had at Hoylake, Davis only wishes he could. Instead the Essex 36-year-old has pulled out due to wrist problems. His future could depend on him recovering in time for next week's Italian Open. Davis currently lies 115th on the money list with just over £72,000. Eales, winner of the 1994 Extremadura Open, lies 117th, while Claydon, from a position in Europe's top 20 and England's Dunhill Cup team just three years ago, followed by a breakthrough victory in the BMW International the following season, has plunged to 132nd.
Clarke, meanwhile, is still undecided about whether he will keep the heat on Westwood by joining him in Sardinia next week.
"It would be good to be back at number one, but I want to start playing well again more than anything else," he said.
Regardless of how he fares this week, it is his next trip to Spain which will decide the Order of Merit. Prize money at the Volvo Masters in Jerez in a fortnight is £2 million and then the following week's World Championship at Valderrama has more than £3 million riding on it.
