WHEN he was a young and fanciful 25-year-old, Peter Dawson took out a £3,000 bank loan so he could play golf on the European Tour.

Thirty-five years on, he's starting out all over again and showing a decent profit from the tournament scene.

The left-hander who lives in Whiteley and is attached to the South Winchester Club, has got the established old pros on the European Seniors Tour looking warily over their shoulders at the 'bright young kid' on the block.

Dawson has quickly established himself on the over 50's tour with a string of top-five finishes and a cherished 20th place in the Order of Merit.

Cherished because it earns him exemption for all events in 2001 which he views with optimism tinged with caution. "It costs around about £1,000 to play a tournament, which means you have to try and earn at least £3,000 to tide you over until the next one," says Dawson.

"That requires a pretty good finish and the standard of play is so high that it's a tall order. If you're over par, you're invariably out of the money.

"It's good to be playing tournament golf again but it's not good for the nerves. It's a challenge, it's a worry and it's also an adrenaline rush all at the same time. It has given me a second lease of life."

When Dawson took out his bank loan all those years ago back in his home town of Filey in Yorkshire, he justified it by finishing seventh on the European PGA Tour.

But it certainly wasn't the lucrative tour it is today. Dawson earned £30,000, a drop in the ocean compared to the £803,000 which Padraig Harrington picked up for seventh place in last year's Volvo Order of Merit.

Dawson's performance brought the reward of a Ryder Cup call up but when he switched to teaching and coaching, he found the experience more rewarding, spiritually as well as financially.

"I worked in France, Portugal, Denmark, Switzerland and Morocco and enjoyed every minute of it," he says.

"My wife Lizzie and I love to travel and we enjoyed the culture of every country we visited, particularly Morocco, my last job, where I looked after the national squad."

The best young player he coached was Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, who now stands on the threshold of a Major win. "I thought then that he looked very special," he said.

Dawson was prepared top stay on in Morocco but explains: "We needed extra funding to take the players a stage further, and we didn't get it." Feeling he'd gone as far as he could with them, he returned home and on his 50th birthday, registered for the Seniors Tour.

His Ryder Cup status gave him an exemption and there's no doubt that Dawson has enhanced the Tour. He took highly-rated American John Grace to a sudden-death play off in the PGA Seniors Championship at The Belfry then led the Tournament of Champions at the Buckinghamshire for two days before slipping to fifth in the final round.

"My short game needs to improve if I'm going to turn places into wins," says Dawson. "It means more practice and I'll arrive early for the first tournament in Barbados in March to to make sure I'm used to the conditions."

Last year he earned £48,558 on the Seniors Tour. Not a bad return on that £3,000 investment.