Philip Walton will have a six-week warm-up in South Africa in the New Year, before he sets about regaining his European Tour card. The 38-year-old is pinning his future as a tournament player on the Challenge Tour, from which the top-15 gain exempt status at the end of the season.

Walton failed in a second attempt at the annual Tour School in Spain last week. Needing to play the last seven holes in one under par to get among the 35 "graduates", he carded five bogeys on the way to a miserable 77.

"Obviously I'm disappointed, but I'm not despondent," he insisted yesterday. "I'll be back - there's nothing surer. And I believe the way to prepare for it is on the South African Tour. I can join the South African PGA for £300."

As to the prospect of playing the Challenge Tour in such salubrious golfing destinations as Russia, Finland, Slovenia and Norway, he said: "It's going to be a bit of a change from the regular tour. I don't suppose there will be too many courtesy cars around. But I'll survive. I'm not afraid of roughing it."

Indeed he's not. Those of us who remember his amateur days will recall the Scottish Strokeplay Championship at Erskine and Renfrew in 1981 when, in the absence of proper accommodation, he slept in a bath. And it didn't stop him winning the title, which secured a place on the Walker Cup team that year.

"I felt I played well in the Tour School, but I seem to have lost the ability to score," he added. "I had to play fierce well to shoot level par or one over, mainly because I can't scramble the way I once did. And the only way I'm going to get that back is through practice."

There are many admirers who believe that Walton is too good a player to be written off at this stage. His caddie, Steve Murphy from Bray, is among them. "I offered to release Steve on the basis that I couldn't offer him very much next year, but he wants to stay with me," said the hero of the 1995 Ryder Cup at Oak Hill. "That's given me a bit of a lift."

By his admission, Walton, who won the French Open in 1990 and the Catalan Open and English Open in 1995, has lost money on tour for the last three years. His financial situation is by no means desperate, but he remains acutely aware of having to plan for the future of his wife and three children.

Meanwhile, he expects to get into probably six to eight regular tour events in Europe next year. "But I won't be going cap in hand looking for invitations," he said.

He will be joined on the Challenge Tour next year by Kilkenny's Gary Murphy, who also missed out at the Tour School. "Gary is a fine player who deserves to succeed," he said. "Anyway, it's a better card than the one from the School," he said. "Because of it being a Ryder Cup year, they reckon that the players who got their cards in San Roque won't be getting into many tournaments next year."

Walton concluded: "It's going to take a lot of hard work to get myself back to where I once was. I haven't forgotten how to compete. One good week is all I need."