Hoey to answer call of the dollar

Michael Hoey is determined to gain from his upsurge in form and join Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell on the lucrative PGA Tour next year.

Hoey confirmed he will enter the PGA Tour School later this year and, if successful, will join his fellow Ulstermen tapping into the multi-million dollar States schedule.

Unless the 33-year old Belfast golfer wins a Major like McIlroy and McDowell then he will have to do it the hard way by putting himself through the six-round qualifying school.

The PGA Tour will scrap the Tour School from the end of this year and in future players will graduate to the main Tour off the secondary Nationwide Tour.

“The timing is right for me because after my two wins in the Dunhill Links Championship and the Hassan II Trophy I’m exempt to the end of 2014 so I’m not under any pressure playing in Europe.”

It will be Hoey’s first major ‘business’ decision since splitting with Horizon Sports, who manage the affairs of McIlroy and McDowell.

Hoey had been planning to leave the Dublin-based group for some time but suggested it was a last straw in his relationship with Horizons when McIlroy signed on earlier this year.

And it’s not just success on golf’s largest stage but the thought of wheelbarrow loads of ‘green backs’ for the four-time European Tour winner. In fact, the 2012 PGA Tour schedule boasts 45 tournaments with a total prize purse of $260 million.

“What they play for in the States each week is unbelievable in events like the World Matchplay and Doral, and the prize fund in the smaller tournaments is still $3.5m

“I still would start my new season in Europe with the Desert Swing because I like those three events before heading to American and over there until Wentworth and BMW PGA in May.

“And who wouldn’t want the opportunity to play for Wentworth size money every week in very good weather on very good greens?”

Hoey has contested just two PGA Tour events in his career, missing the cut at both The Masters and Memorial in 2002.

He added: “I know it will be tough to get a Tour card, but I’m going to give it a go as a bit of an adventure and I also want to see what I could do over there rather than look back in a few years to come and asking, “Why didn’t I give it a go?”