Golf: The trump card in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, city of dreams or last-chance saloon? For golfers playing in the Michelin Championship at the casino capital this week there was an element of both.

With only four regular-season tournaments left to earn enough to hang on to their cards on the rich US PGA tour, many of the competitors see the tournament, with some of the biggest stars missing, as a potential saviour.

Michael Long, New Zealand's man on the brink, missed the cut and will have to hope for a big pay day elsewhere if he is to avoid joining the hopefuls chasing a 2006 card at the December tour school marathon.

But for 41-year-old Texan Wes Short jnr, Las Vegas became the city of his dreams and then some.

He was hoping for a decent finish to lift him from 176th on the money list to a place inside the top 125, who hold on to their tour cards. He trumped everyone by finishing equal first with the experienced Jim Furyk and winning the title at the second playoff hole.

The winner's cheque of US$720,000 ($1,037,000) moved him to a very secure 70th place and the two-year winner's exemption means he can forget about having to qualify for his card for a while.

Short was an unlikely hero. He made it on to the big tour as a 40-year-old rookie in 2004 after finishing seventh at the tour school. He struggled and in mid-season missed five consecutive cuts before quitting with a back injury.

This season, returning after a medical exemption, he had played 14 tournaments and been in the money six times for earnings of US$285,700.

At Las Vegas he had rounds of 67, 67, 66 and 66 to be 22 under. He finished eagle, par, birdie to earn a playoff after Furyk bogeyed the final hole. He clinched the playoff with a par after his vastly more experienced opponent hit his tee-shot into the water.

Short's Las Vegas triumph coincides with the beginning of the process that leads to the final qualifying tournament for the big tour.

At 14 venues across the southern states, hundreds of golfers have begun playing in 72-hole tournaments, typically with fields of around 70 vying for 20 places in the second round of qualifying.

Next week New Zealand professionals Brad Heaven, Doug Batty, Marcus Wheelhouse, Grant Moorhead and Eddie Lee will be in action. Steve Alker, Tim Wilkinson and Grant Waite will join the action at the second stage, if they haven't gained automatic promotion by finishing in the top 20 on the Nationwide tour.

The survivors from the first two rounds join those outside the 125th place on the US PGA money list for the 96-hole showdown in early December.

Around 35 cards for the big tour will be at stake as well as Nationwide tour cards for those who survive to the final day.

Professional golf can be all about hanging in there. The last two tournaments on the European tour have been won by Englishman John Bickerton, whose first victory in 287 appearances on the tour came in the Canary Island Open, and Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin, who had played 237 tournaments without a win before his victory in the Madrid Open.