ALAN MEW has been involved in an anxious countdown to the DGM Barbados Open - first event on the European Seniors Tour calendar for 2005.

The 53-year-old Stoneham golfer ambitiously flew out to the Caribbean last week even though he was just 12th reserve for the Barbados event.

But drop-outs from the original entry list have given Mew reason to believe he might yet make the starting line-up for tomorrow's event at the Royal Westmoreland club.

If the former Hampshire champion from Southampton, pictured, misses out, his long journey won't be in vain because his entry has been confirmed for the Tobago Plantations Championship the following week.

That's the event which is closest to Mew's heart because he was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1952 when his English father worked out there.

He grew up there and even turned professional there before returning to England to become one of the finest amateur golfers in the south - an accolade he earned with three wins in the English Mid Amateur Championship.

This will be Mew's third season on the European Seniors Tour and it's one in which he seeks to finally establish himself on the ever-expanding over 50s circuit.

For the last two years he's finished 50th in the order of merit which means he only has a conditional card and is not exempt for all the high-ranking tournaments like the British Seniors Open.

Yet he's already led a couple of tournaments in his short time in Europe and last year achieved top ten finishes in the Scottish Open and the Estoril Seniors Open.

He has earned less than 70,000 euros in two years, which means you'll find him doing building work around Southampton through the winter to subsidise his golf.

Mew, married with two daughters, practises at Stoneham and is in a confident mood going into the new season.

He doesn't need to look too far to realise that his goals are attainable. Two former Hampshire club professionals, John Morgan and Bob Cameron, are now very much a part of the European establishment.

Cameron, who worked his way up through the Hampshire junior teams, won twice in 2004 to finish seventh on the Seniors' order of merit, while former Stoneham professional Morgan, who now lives in West Kirby, is five times a winner on the tour.