Johnny Watterson takes a look at the next generation of professional golfers

Some of the best junior players in the world descended on The K Club yesterday. This is the Junior Ryder Cup. If they hadn't had it before, this group of teenagers are recognised as tomorrow's elite and psychologically at least, the bite-sized Ryder competition takes them a step closer to the Holy Grail of one day obtaining a professional touring card.

One Swiss player, Raphael de Sousa, the 2001 English Boys Open under-18 strokeplay champion, has already entered the cut-throat arena of the European PGA qualifying school.

Last week at Wynyard de Sousa took a step closer to becoming a PGA foot soldier and moves to the second stage of qualifying, while Surrey 17-year-old Farren Keenan breathlessly lists his proficiency in the game with a plus-three handicap.

This is the fourth time the competition has been staged and is now an integral part of what the organisers call "The Ryder Cup experience".

Still callow, less sure of their shots, more elastic than the warriors of the tour, players like de Sousa and US player Casey Whittenberg, a member of the 2001 US World Cup team and Golf Week's junior player of the year, are clear about the road ahead. They want to play professionally.

Reflective shades, woolly hat, three layers of clothing in September sunshine, it's a cold day in Memphis for Whittenberg, who struggles with his partner Taylor Hall against Europe's de Sousa and Peter Max Hamm.

Behind them European Tour event sponsor Michael Smurfit, follows in his golf buggy. Smurfit's presence along with many of golf's top administrators is significant and the fact that the Ryder Cup name was ever sanctioned for the event equates to a golf papal blessing.

It was not an easy passage for the tournament to arrive at total acceptance, with the US in particular initially unsure of the place of a Junior Ryder Cup in the golfing firmament.

Now they are converts and this week tradition stacks up in their favour.

No host team has won the competition, which began in 1995, where a then 15-year-old Spaniard Sergio Garcia led Europe to victory in Rochester, New York.

As a 19-year-old, Garcia was back as the celebrity to whom players were scrambling to be photographed in quite an astonishing four-year turn around.

The United States, two years after the inaugural event, reclaimed the trophy 7-5 at San Roque & Alcaidesa Links in Spain with the European's merciless revenge at Cape Cod in 1999 overwhelming, winning 10½ to 1½.

"We wanted to use this tournament as a promotion for junior golf.

"But we have been very keen not to put pressure on the players," says John Storjohann, general secretary of the European Golf Association.

"But no doubt, it will become a big tournament. We beat the US last time 10½ and 1½. They were not happy.

"The PGA of the US have taken it over now and they have a tougher attitude and view of what they want."

Unlike this week's event at The Belfry, the junior tournament features boys and girls. Each team consists of 12 players with four boys and girls under 16 and two girls and two boys under 18.

The matches are played over two days in a fourball series and mixed fourball series, with the girls playing off forward tees.

Because the event was carried over for a year, selection for the European team's under-16 players was based on performance at the Youth European Masters in 2001 with the under-18s selected by the European Golf Association.

On a yearly assessment it was possible that Limerick's Cian McNamara may have made it into the European side, but for now at least local interest may focus on four years' time when organisers hope to stage the competiton in Celtic Manor, venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup.

"We have the best young golfers from Europe and the US here," says Scott Kelly, group marketing director of the PGA European Tour.

"What we're trying to do is recapture the Sammy Ryder principles - competitive golf in a friendly and respectful atmosphere. These players are under-16 and under-18 now. In their careers they will play for millions of dollars and compete in competitions like the Ryder Cup. This event is deliberately detuned a little.

"The idea is not to break their hearts if they miss a shot or play badly."

That takes some convincing of the players as they funnel back to their team-mates when they've won or lost their matches.

Some of them are already on the cusp of divorcing their amateur status and have lived an almost full-time golf lifestyle for several years. Some won't make it.

Some will become golfing super novas like Garcia, Ty Tryon and Suzanne Pettersen. And that is a likelihood as much as a possibility.