Languishing in 204th spot on the US money list going into this week's St Jude Classic at the TPC of Southwind, Richie Coughlan has a meagre $24,757 against his name. He badly needs a breakthrough if he is to retain his card.

He has hardly paid his expenses thus far, and his attempt to better his 1998 performance on the tour was certainly not helped when he fell and cracked two ribs as he came out of a hotel lift in Los Angeles back in February.

"It's fine now, I had to resign myself to the fact that I had to quit playing for a while, but it means in effect starting the season all over again," said Coughlan yesterday. He had been forced to come off the course after playing only six holes due to a severe storm.

"I'm very frustrated you know. The way I look at it is I don't care if I've six events left, 10 or 15, which is probably the case. If I'm good enough to keep my card I'll play the golf and if I'm not well that's another day, but there's loads of time and if I play as well as I think I can, I should be okay. "I don't have to win $3.2 million, I'll take $450,000. That's not a huge amount really, when you think of the amount that these guys are winning.

"With the re-ranking and not playing for a couple of months I went way down the list and that was very frustrating, but I feel great, I'm working out every day, I'm fit as a fiddle and it's just a matter of holing a few putts.

"My ball striking is great, although it's taken a while to come back, but I have a new set of Ping i 3s in the bag that I had made and they feel great."

Coughlan is one of eight Europeans playing here, including a rejuvenated Nick Faldo, but it remains to be seen if Faldo can repeat the form he showed at Wentworth in America, where his best finish this year is a lowly tie for 22nd in the Houston Open.