Slim pickings, but a real test

THE 30th player in this week’s Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond will receive in excess of €30,000, comfortably more than the total prize fund of €26,000 on offer in the Irish PGA Championship which starts at the European Club in Co Wicklow this morning.

The winner of the country’s oldest professional event will receive €4,000 with the remainder of the money distributed as evenly as possible between those who make the 36 hole cut tomorrow evening.

IPGA secretary Michael McCumiskey explained that they had been unable to sell any teams for yesterday’s pro-am and that this year no subvention was forthcoming from the parent body at PGA headquarter at The Belfry. The prize fund in 2008 amounted to €70,000. Sponsors Ladbrokes.com are contributing €40,000, with €14,000 of that amount being used to defray the costs of running the event.