Glasgow golfer Stephen Gray faces the prospect of driving through the night just hours before the final of the Glenbrae PGA Fourball Championship, supported by SkyCaddie, next week.
The 33-year-old is due to play with partner Andrew Marshall in the £30,000 54-hole final at Fulford Golf Club in York between October 3 and 5.
However, in order to get in decent preparation he would have had to cut short a holiday.
Therefore he will be relying on Marshall - with whom he combined to win the Scottish region qualifier - to do the groundwork at the course before arriving in the early hours.
"It will be a journey for me. I come back off my holidays the night before and so I am going to have to travel through the night to get there for the event," said Gray, of Hayston Golf Club in Kirkintilloch.
"It was either that or cut my holiday short. Hopefully the break does not put me at too much of a disadvantage. Andy is going to have to do most of the spadework.
"My game is pretty good. I won an Order of Merit event (the Kerr Investments Classic) since we won the qualifier.
"I'm trying to keep playing the way I'm playing and see how we go on."
Gray and Marshall, of Houston Golf Range in West Lothian, surprised themselves with an 11-under-par winning score at the qualifier as they had not played in the fourball event before.
"I have not really played a lot of fourball golf but it was quite a good partnership at the qualifier, Andy made five birdies in a row and I had four in a row," added the 33-year-old Gray.
"We just turned up on the day at Musselburgh and shot 11 under. It surprised us a wee bit but we feel we can birdie every hole."
Alan Lockhart (Ladybank) and Callum Nicoll (Prestwick) were beaten into second place at Musselburgh. They too are playing in the event for the first time this year.
"The way we play our style is suited to the fourball format and we are good pals so there is no pressure," said Lockhart, who met Nicoll while they were both doing their PGA training in 2001.
"I played Fulford in the PGA Europro Tour qualifying school in April and I thought it was fantastic and felt it suited me."
Both have played in national finals before - the PGA Assistants Championship and the Club Professional Championship - and hope the experience gained from those can help.
"We know what it is all about playing in a national final. It is quite a big deal," added Lockhart.
"But in this format it is not as if when you have a bad hole it is a big drop.
"We will go down there and try our best to bring the trophy back to Scotland."