INTERVIEW: Dermot Gilleece talks to Michael Hoey about a move into paid ranks

Given reasonable conditions and a healthy breakfast, Michael Hoey would expect to hit a drive of about 290 yards' carry and have the ball trundle on to a distance of roughly 310. Yet he is currently engaged in a quest for additional distance as preparation for a career as a tournament professional.

"That's the way it is nowadays," said the reigning British Amateur Champion, who will complete a quartet of Irish challengers in the US Masters at Augusta National in April. "You need all the yardage you can get to make the most of par fives."

So, since his return last month from South Africa, where he finished 52nd in the South African Open at Durban CC, he has been working with a fitness expert, Eric Wallace of the University of Ulster, to keep pace with the current, power hitting. The objective is to toughen Hoey's 12st 7lb frame, while delivering higher levels of concentration. He believes the work helps his self-discipline.

His next tournament assignment is the Desert Classic in Dubai on March 7th to 10th, and, by a happy coincidence, it is being held at the Emirates GC where Hoey captured the 36-hole Emirates Amateur Open Strokeplay title two years ago, as a representative of the GUI. From there, he will fly via London to Orlando for the Bay Hill Invitational on March 14th to 17th. The free week in between the two events will be devoted to practice.

"I'm afraid of getting rusty and it's not easy to practise in Irish conditions," he said. "But I plan to keep my game in shape through a visit to Bobby Browne (his coach), later this week.

"There was the chance of playing a tournament in Australia, but it's a long way to go simply for one event. And I also turned down the chance of playing in Singapore, because the high temperatures wouldn't suit me."

In the meantime, he has had the benefit of encouraging chats with Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington, to whom he is looking as role models. And his current reading just happens to be a book by Tiger Woods.

"Paul told me that the physical work I'm doing, for what's called core stability scheduling, is similar to his regime," he said.

"When I discussed the Masters with Padraig, he warned that I shouldn't allow my performance there to determine my approach to a professional career. He said the greens are tricked up and not what I could expect in regular tour events .

"They're great guys who have been really supportive."

Though Hoey will not be signing professional forms until after savouring the Augusta reward for his triumph at Prestwick last summer, he is quite entitled to make plans in that direction.

And the indications are that he will be joining Harrington in the International Management Group: McGinley and Darren Clarke are with International Sports Management, which, though relatively small, is highly successful.

The indications are that the Shandon Park player is set for a sparkling future. There was certainly a very impressive pointer in a Scottish Open performance at Loch Lomond last July, when he carded remarkably consistent rounds of 71, 71,71 and 64 for a share of 11th place, which would have earned him a cheque for around £38,000, had he been playing for cash.

A month later, he played a hero's role in the British and Irish Walker Cup triumph at Sea Island, Georgia, the first time the trophy had been successfully defended on American soil.

Back in May, 1999, while a student at Clemson University in South Carolina, a special treat for the golf team was a visit to Augusta National. So, he played the course as it was when Jose Maria Olazabal had captured the Masters for a second time the previous month, except that the greens were a lot less treacherous, naturally.

Since then, however, he has gained the further experience of playing the newly lengthened course, which already gives him an edge on his three Irish colleagues. Indeed, McGinley will be having his first sight of Augusta in April.

"I got the chance when I was practising at the Golf Club of Georgia (an hour's drive north of Atlanta) last December and the changes are really dramatic," he said. "For instance, after hitting a really good drive up the 18th, I still had an uphill five-iron of about 180 yards to the green. It is now a very serious finishing hole."

He also found the long 13th to be a daunting challenge, off the new back tee. In attempting to sling a long hook around the right to left dogleg, his drive finished in Rae's Creek and he eventually had to pitch and putt for a par.

As a build-up to the Masters, Hoey will be playing an 18-hole match against the US Amateur champion, Bubba Dickerson, for the Georgia Cup.

"I'm told that Sergio Garcia practises at the Georgia club, so I may get the chance of playing with him," he said.

Then comes Augusta, where he will be hoping to join his Irish colleagues in practice rounds. His target is to emulate Garcia's 1999 achievement of winning the amateur medal, though he would clearly settle for surviving the cut. After that, the eagerly-awaited move into professional ranks will have seemed long overdue.

And his professional debut? "I'm thinking of a low-key event on the European Challenge Tour," he said. "There's one in Switzerland which might suit me." Which is the thinking of a player who seems to be keeping his feet on the ground.

Footnote: Clarke, Harrington and McGinley, will be competing in this year's Smurfit Irish Professional Championship which is scheduled for Westport GC on April 25th to 28th, the week of the Spanish Open.

It will be the championship's first visit to Westport and its first staging west of the Shannon since Clarke won at Galway Bay in 1994.