European Tour: Brian McElhinney's day job has changed. From now on, instead of playing the game solely for the honour and the glory, he will be playing golf for pay; and that process starts with this week's Tessali Open in Italy where the 23-year-old Donegal man will make his debut appearance on the Challenge Tour, the secondary circuit on the PGA European Tour.
As the winner of last year's British Amateur championship, which earned him an invitation to the US Masters earlier this month where he was the low amateur, McElhinney has been promised seven invitations to tournaments on the Challenge Tour, although he is also seeking invitations to a number of full Tour events, including one to next month's Nissan Irish Open at Carton House.
McElhinney, though, will focus mainly on the Challenge Tour in an attempt to win one of the 20 cards available for the full Tour next season.
He is one of four Irish players - along with his former amateur team-mate Michael McGeady, Justin Kehoe and Colm Moriarty - playing in Tessali, where the top prize is 19,200.
A more sizeable prize (275,00 to the winner) is on offer on the main tour in the Spanish Open at San Roque, where the Irish contingent features Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Michael Hoey, David Higgins and Stephen Browne, who has been using the facilities at the GUI's national academy at Carton House in recent weeks in an effort to sharpen his game for whatever limited number of tournaments he can play in, due to the category card he has for this season.
Lawrie has risen to 51st in the European Tour money list after a series of consistent performances which have seen him make the cut in his last five tournaments, including record back-to-back top-15 finishes in each of the last two weeks at the China Open and the Asian Open.
Among those competing in San Roque will be newly crowned Asian Open champion Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, of Spain, and Colin Montgomerie, who finished third in Shanghai, and is a former Spanish Open champion. The eight-times European Tour Order of Merit winner has jetted back west to begin a run of tournaments in Europe that will take him up to next month's BMW Championship at Wentworth.
"I love the competition, it's as simple as that, and that is the thing that keeps me motivated," said Monty. "I love to try and win and going out and beating 155 other guys is a thrill and that keeps me going. I am very competitive and, to be honest, I don't think I'll ever lose that competitive edge."
Paul McGinley, meanwhile, is considering adding next week's Italian Open to his itinerary. The Dubliner - riding high in the Ryder Cup tables - has missed the cut in his three tournaments in the United States and is not due to reappear until the Quinn Direct British Masters in a fortnight's time, starting a sequence that will also take in the Nissan Irish Open and the BMW Championship. McGinley will decide later this week whether to add on the Italian Open to that list.
