Golf: Torn between home and hope

Kiwi professional Steve Alker has only one regret as he starts his rookie year on the tough US tour in Honolulu this week- that he can't be at the NZ Open.

Alker, 31, fulfilled every young golfer's ambition by securing his playing card on the US PGA tour for 2003, when he finished 4th on the second-tier Buy.Com tour last year. That was the good news.

The bad news was that the US PGA Tour starts in Honolulu today with the first round of the Sony Open.

So the joint runner-up of last year's open will have his heart in Middlemore but says there was no way he could afford to miss the start of the US Tour.

The way the tour is set up, the top 125 players from last year gained full playing rights this year. They are followed by the top 15 money winners on the Buy.Com Tour and top 35 from the final tour-qualifying event.

As the 4th leading money winner on the Buy.Com tour last year with earnings of US$247,000 ($455,000), Alker starts the year with a high ranking and a guarantee of starts for the first eight weeks after which those second-tier players are re-ranked. So the choice of Honolulu this week over Middlemore is, he says, a no brainer.

"The NZ Open is the one tournament each year I never want to miss but gaining a spot on the US tour is something I've long aimed for, and now I've been given the chance I need to make the most of it."