Golf: Promising Carter joins the caravan

The Dubai Desert Classic lures Els and company while Faldo is elsewhere - A young challenger is joining the ranks of the European Tour as one past mas ter moves on. Tim Glover reports

Time was when the European Tour was actually played in Europe by Europeans, but this week it begins in earnest in the Persian Gulf in a tournament in which the defending champion is a South African called Ernest.

The Dubai Desert Classic, which starts at the Emirates Club tomorrow, features not only Ernie Els but Greg Norman and the world No 1, Nick Price. Most of Europe's leading players have also joined the caravan to the Middle East, with the most notable exception of Nick Faldo, the former world No 1.

While Els and company will be teeing off in Dubai, Faldo will be launching the latest phase of his career in Tucson, Arizona. He intends to play in 17 tournaments on the US Tour and after Tucson Faldo will compete in the Phoenix Open, thereby missing thesecond stop on the European Tour, the Johnnie Walker Classic in Manilla.

In a Ryder Cup year with points available up to August, it seems odd for Faldo to bypass two extravagant events and odder still to miss the competition provided by the best players in the world. Els, Norman and Price, like Faldo, are card-carrying members of the US Tour.

Twelve months ago Els shot 61 in the first round of the Desert Classic and went on to win the championship by six strokes from Norman, the first instalment in a record-breaking year which earned him more than $3m (£1.97m). The following week Norman won the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand - Faldo missed the half-way cut - and the Australian started to fantasise about a "world tour". So far it remains a fantasy and is likely to remain so, at least for this year.

Norman, of course, is precluded from the Ryder Cup which, over the past 10 years, has tended to influence the minds and deeds of players on both the European and American tours. Since Europe's victory at The Belfry in 1985, the four subsequent matches have been desperately close and Americans who had barely heard of the competition now consider qualification for the team a priority.

This means that some Americans who have barely been heard of outside Florida - Bob Estes, Jeff Maggert, Loren Roberts and Tom Lehman -are in the running for September's match at Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, New York. Lanny Wadkins, the US captain, has been espousing a novel gospel in America, namely that "golf is fun". It will be interesting to see if Wadkins, a ferocious competitor who manhandled a cameraman in the Cup match in Columbus in 1987, will be repeating the message at Oak Hill.

Seve Ballesteros, one of Bernard Gallacher's wild-card choices two years ago, has come out of the traps for this one like a hare (even if he does occasionally get fined for slow play) and he heads the European Ryder Cup qualifying table with more than £300,000.

The ninth player who qualified in 1993 was on £326,929, so unless Ballesteros falls down a rabbit hole his seat on Concorde is assured. Also prominent in the pecking order are Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal, Ian Woosnam and the Volvo Order of Meritwinner, Colin Montgomerie. Both teams will be finalised in August.

Prize-money for the European Tour this year totals £25m spread over 34 events. Whereas Volvo has indicated a willingness to tone down its investment in tennis and put more into golf, Heineken has just announced it will be doing the reverse. Contracts forseveral tournaments will not be renewed after this season.

For the first time the South African PGA Championship is incorporated into the European schedule. The policy of the Tour to follow the sun as early as possible will be particularly welcomed by the rookie, David Carter, who produced one of the outstandingperformances of 1994 in winning the Qualifying School in France.

It was the 22-year-old Carter's fifth attempt at gaining his card after first competing as a 17-year-old fresh from a spell with the South African army. Despite storms and torrential rain which cut the School from six rounds to four, Carter, set a courserecord of 64 at Massane in the third round and finished at the top of the class of '94 by five strokes.

Last week he prepared for life on tour by attending the Apollo finishing school at San Roque, Spain, and on Thursday he will take his place among the elite at the Emirates course. The only problem that appears to face the waif-like Carter, who is 6ft 1inand weighs only 10st, is whether to play under a British or South African flag. "I feel English," Carter said with a South African accent.

He was born in Johannesburg and holds a British passport. His father Bryan, who runs a driving range in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, turned professional at the grand old age of 46 and now competes on the European Seniors Tour. Father has caddied for son andson for father but as they are both now tournament players they will have to find somebody else to carry the bags.