MATT BLACKEY is currently out of pocket for being Hampshire's most successful golfer on the European Tour this summer.

A 29th place finish in the European PGA Challenge Tour rankings with earnings of just over £15,000 meant that Hayling Islander Blackey has just about broken even for the season.

But now as the former Hampshire Open champion dreams of making it third time lucky at the European Tour Qualifying School Finals next week, he first has to find the £800 entry fee and a few hundred more for accommodation on the Costa Del Sol.

That won't be easy. He hasn't been paid for a month.

Blackey is still waiting for a £3,000 cheque he earned for finishing fourth in the Swedish Challenge Tour event on September 30 - his fourth top-ten finish of the year.

He is still due over £1,000 for his efforts in Spain on October 10 and another £2,671 for finishing ninth in the Challenge Tour Grand Final in Cuba the week before last.

"If it wasn't for the goodwill of my parents who still let me live at home, I'd be wondering where the next meal was coming from let along my entry fee for Tour School," said Blackey.

While he's been waiting for back-dated prize money to be paid into his bank account, the former GB amateur international has had to cough up hefty air fares to get to faraway places like Varadero in Cuba, the unlikely venue for the Challenge Tour grand finale.

Days after returning home Blackey was still wilting from the after-effects of a gruelling 26-hour journey - the result of a three-hour flight delay in Cuba, another three-hour stop-over in the Caribbean for the plane to change a punctured tyre ("they didn't tell us it was punctured when we were landing") then a detour to Paris to change planes.

"I felt absolutely shattered when I got home," said Blackey, "and when mum and dad said I still hadn't been paid for Sweden (the organisers are still trying to get money from the sponsors) I began to wonder whether it was all worthwhile.

"But at the end of the day it just strengthens determination to get on to the main Volvo Tour next year."

He missed out by just one shot when wildly inclement weather reduced the final qualifying school in 1997 from six to four rounds. Last year at San Roque and Sotogrande he missed the 54-hole cut by one shot.

This year, after his best ever season, Blackey believes he can make the all-important top 36. "I've only missed four cuts all season," he reveals, "and my all-round game is stronger than it's ever been.

"Being at Final Tour School twice and seeing what its all about will help me cope better. Everyone frets and worries about it, but the secret is just to treat it as a normal week and try and play your normal game - if you can."

The price of failure is high . . . another year of scraping along on the seat of your pants on the Challenge Tour where the prize money is painfully modest compared to the lucrative Volvo-sponsored main tour.

Next week Justin Rose talks about his prospects about becoming a fully-fledged European Tour player.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.