Caddie's role/Colin Byrne We are getting towards the time of year that those listed below 100 in the European Order Of Merit are counting the cents. Not to even out the year's balance sheet, but as a matter of survival for next year.

What is the magic number going to be to make the much sought after 115th in the list and a card to play next year? It's going to be over €170,000, not bad you may say for knocking a golf ball around some of the sunnier parts of the globe all year long.

The reality of expenditure can be a little more sobering to those of you getting carried away with the idea of a faraway cruise round a tropical island with the odd golf stop. Believe me, it's a hard graft . A long way from the €2 million-plus crowd at the other end of the scale, but everyone has to start somewhere.

There are two more events left in which to get inside the survival zone, Madrid and Rome. If not, it's decision time and most will opt for the very unattractive choice of the Tour School. This is the year end "tournament" in which 150 final hopefuls, those who qualify through a previous two stages, will have a chance to earn a tour card - the hard way .

It's not a formal educational experience as the name may suggest, but more of a boot camp where the harsh reality of professional golf is undeniably stark. The problem with a tour card in Europe is that it does not guarantee the holder a chance to play the full tour the following year.

Adam Mednick's golfing world took a turn for the better in Ballyliffin, Co Donegal last August. He won the North West of Ireland Open and the right to play the tour for the rest of this year and all of next year. It is not something that all tour card-holders can take for granted.

Until August, the Swede had played the European Tour on and off for the last 10 years. Mostly not knowing what events he would be exempt for. He was pretty much permanently on stand-bye.

Adam went to the school in the south of Spain last November for another go at getting a card. He cannot remember the amount of times he has visited the coast of pain as some veterans would prefer to call it.

He managed to finish tied 26th and was ranked 31st due to the countback system, five players on the same score shot a better final round than Mednick.

Until August, Adam had played in eight events including the British Open championship, which he qualified for independently. He had felt like he applied for the job last November, got the job and had been called in for work almost only one week each month. He had felt under-employed.

There were over 25 events played on the tour until August, the lower card-holder got to play in well less than half of them. There is a re-rank system in operation for the Tour School qualifiers. After the French Open (15 events), the top 20 school players on the Order of Merit got re-ranked according to how they performed in the first five months of the year.

The other school qualifiers are left out of this re-ranking. Fifteen events later, there is a further re-rank after the Scottish PGA, where the whole school is re-ranked. So there is a further imbalance for the players who got less chances to prove themselves due to the lack of starts in the first place .

The counter argument, of course, is that they could have got a higher card in the first place. Which is an obvious assessment. But there is also a feeling amongst those lower card-holders that they would be better off without them.

Either they should have more guaranteed starts during the year or less qualifying spots to start with. The alternative to the school is to concentrate on the Challenge Tour.

THROUGH this secondary tour the top 15 in the final order of merit also receive a card to play the main tour. These 15 players are higher ranked than the Tour School qualifiers and so they get into far more events than the school graduates. Often low-ranked graduates can get caught between the main tour (for which they are never sure if they can play or not until very late) and the Challenge Tour. To play the Challenge Tour you need to finish top 10 to break even anyway.

Those who believe in a true capitalist system will argue correctly that everyone has an equal chance to succeed on Tour and the incentives at the top are big enough to create a competitive environment.Those with a more altruistic philosophy will argue that it does seem increasingly difficult for newcomers to get a slice of the "big cheese".

Madrid and Rome are better places to visit as holiday makers and not as tour-card savers. The purses are not big, but then many of those battling for survival over the next few weeks didn't play in the big purse events earlier in the year either.

Those who travel have all experienced the stand-bye system at some stage of their journeys. Sometimes you get where you are going on time and with better service than you paid for (frequently the last seats free on board are business class seats). Other times you are left in the departure lounge of an airport closing for the night wondering why you bothered in the first place .

Hope may well be the worst quality of man, if you believe the philosophy of the famous French writer Marcel Proust. Without it, Adam Mednick would not have stayed around to prove that he could realise his golfing potential and win on Tour, thus guaranteeing his immediate golfing future. The tour school graduates are frequently left in the empty departure lounge, so to speak.