A trio of PGA Cup players will reunite at Royal Liverpool tomorrow when they go head to head in the Srixon PGA Play-Offs.
But reliving happy memories of last year's Georgia campaign will be the last thing on the minds of Andrew Barnett, George Ryall and Paul Wesselingh as they chase entry to some of Europe's biggest events plus a handful of Challenge Tour starts.
The three, who were part of the Great Britain and Ireland PGA Cup team that narrowly missed winning on US soil for the first time last year, will compete over 36 holes for the title of PGA No1 player plus guaranteed starts in five of the European Tour's biggest events - the BMW PGA Championship, English Open, Scottish Open, Wales Open and European Open.
At aged 50 and 47 respectively, Ryall (The Players) and Wesselingh (Kedleston Park) will be the most experienced players in the field but they go into the £15,000 event in good form with Ryall buoyed by becoming the oldest ever winner of the West Region Order of Merit.
Wesselingh, who lifted the Midland Invitational on his way to finishing third in the Midland Order of Merit, remains a supreme competitor and despite not being the longest of hitters enjoys a good track record on links courses having won the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship at Prince's in 2006.
Meanwhile the ever-consistent Barnett's enduring form was reflected in a second successive runners-up spot in the same event at Moortown.
Other players expected to feature prominently will be record-breaking Chris Doak who smashed records galore on his way to winning both the Tartan Tour and Scottish Order of Merit.
The Greenock pro is acutely aware of the spoils on offer for the play-off champion and with second stage European Tour qualifying school on the horizon will be striving to secure the lucrative starts.
It will be Doak's debut in the event but one man who will be more than familiar with the format is South Region left-hander James Ablett (Lee on Solent) who is bidding to make it third time lucky having reached the last two play-offs with a share of fourth at Notts (Hollinwell) last year his best finish.
20 October, 2008