Tour School examination for Emo and Lee (From Bournemouth Echo)

Tour School examination for Emo and Lee

4:37pm Friday 27th November 2009 in

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DORSET duo Gary Emerson and Lee James begin their arduous and well-traced test at the European Tour Qualifying School in Spain tomorrow.

Emerson and James are among a field of 156 hopefuls battling to secure one of the 30 Tour cards up for grabs after a gruelling six-round examination.

The first four rounds are split over the Stadium Course (par 72, 7172 yards) and Tour Course (par 70, 6577 yards) at the PGA Golf de Catalunya.

Both players were exempt from the first two stages of qualifying which saw an original entry of 913 cut to 186 and then 77 who join the remaining 79 players this weekend.

It is Emerson’s 13th visit to the Qualifying School and his third in a row after losing his playing privileges in 2007 after 15 years on the main Tour.

The 46-year-old Remedy Oak touring professional won the Russian Open in 2004 and collected six-figure cheques for finishing runner-up in the 2005 Dutch Open and the 2006 British Masters.

Emerson will be looking to go at least one step further than last year when he failed to make the last 70 and ties who survived the cut after four rounds.

James, meanwhile, is making his 14th visit to Qualifying School after finishing 29th on last season’s Challenge Tour.

The 36-year-old Broadstone player won for the fifth time on the Challenge Tour when he clinched the Allianz Cote d’Armor Bretagne in May.

But he failed to build on that early success and finished nine places off an automatic return to the top flight.

James, who won the 1994 British Amateur championship, also missed the four-round cut last November.

He has, however, tasted success at the Qualifying School in 2007 when he won back his Tour card for 12 months by finishing a creditable seventh.

The final two days are played over the longer Stadium Course on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

James and Emerson’s first two tee times – Tomorrow: 9.40am (Stadium Course) Lee James, Malcolm MacKenzie, Sion Bebb. 10.25am (Tour Course) Gary Emerson, Jarrod Moseley, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet.

Sunday (same groups): Emerson (Stadium Course) 9.20am, James (Tour Course) 10.35am.