GOLF: Philip Walton is among the seven Irish players competing in the European Tour's qualifying school final which starts today at the Emporda and Pals golf clubs on the Costa Brava in Spain.

A three-time tournament winner, Walton has taken advantage of a tour rule that allows past champions to bypass stages one and two of the qualifying school for a period of 10 years from the date of their last win. Walton has been faced with the same situation for the past three seasons but has failed to regain his card on each occasion, missing out by six shots last year.

The field consists of 168 players, and includes three Irishmen who qualified for the finals in appalling conditions at St Cyprien in France last week - Stephen Browne, Daniel Sugrue and Gary Cullen.

Michael Hoey comfortably made the finals by finishing tied third at the PGA de Catalunya, while Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane compete by virtue of finishing in the top 45 on the Challenge Tour.

All competitors will play two rounds at each of the two courses, with a cut coming after the fourth round on Monday night, when the top 75 players and ties will progress to the final two rounds, which will be played at Emporda.

This year England's Phil Golding will make a record 16th attempt to gain a card.

German Heinz-Peter Thuel made 15 attempts between 1981 and 1998, coming through the ordeal only three times, although he won in 1989 when the failures included Philip Price.

Golding was making his sixth appearance on that occasion. He did not succeed then, but simply refused to give up.

In 1993 the Luton player finally made it through, but two top 10 finishes on the circuit the following season were not enough to save him from a return to the qualifying school.

And while he also survived in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998, the former model's career failed to take off each time.

Now, though, Golding can consider himself unlucky to be battling for the 35 cards on offer.

In the final round of his final event of last season the 40-year-old produced his best-ever score on tour, a brilliant 63 at the Italian Open in Rome. It put him in fourth place, although 10th spot seemed good enough to secure his future.

But as he waited for the event to finish he started to slip down the leaderboard and wound up in 13th place, one shot short of 10th and less than £2,000 away from the all-important 116th position on the Order of Merit.