Martin Le Mesurier has one last chance to salvage his European Tour playing rights in Spain this week.

But the 26-year-old from Southampton knows deep down he's facing mission impossible as only a top three finish in the Madrid Open, starting on Thursday, will save his card.

And the way the former Hampshire champion has been playing recently doesn't exactly inspire confidence, most crucially in the player himself.

Le Mesurier last made a cut when he played (and finished last) in the Italian Open at the beginning of May.

His last real chance of saving his card disappeared when a virus laid him low and made him a non-starter for last week's Mallorca Classic.

Now he's already making plans for the Tour School Finals in southern Spain on November 6.

It's a sobering prospect for one of Hampshire's most exciting golfing talents who just a year ago secured his place on Europe's main tour with a brilliant run of success on the Challenge Tour in 2003.

Two wins, in Italy and Luxembourg, sent him soaring to second place in the Challenge Tour order of merit, and when he made his European Tour debut in January, it was with confidence brimming.

To such an extent that Le Mesurier took 11th place in a star-studded field at the ANZ Championship at Port Stephens in Australia.

He looked set fair for a solid first season but by the time spring was out, the man from Blackfield and Langley on Southampton's Waterside was starting to stumble. The turning point came at the rain-ruined Italian Open when after two decent rounds of 72 and 69, the rains came, delayed play and left the players fretting and fuming in their hotel rooms.

When Le Mesurier at last came out for his third and final round, it was with a head filled with negatives. He shot an 81, finished last and has never really been the same since.

Unheard of double bogeys began to disfigure his scorecard and now, five months and several missed cuts on, the Brockenhurst Manor clubman admits that his confidence has been shaken to such an extent that he's already half resigned for a return to the Challenge Tour in 2005.

But even if he can't achieve the lofty finish he needs to pull off a minor miracle in Madrid this week, it would be a good time and a good place to start the recovery process and repair some of his battered confidence in time for Tour School.

There were positive signs in the Dunhill Links Championship two weeks ago when he battled well in tough conditions at Carnoustie and St Andrews and narrowly missed the cut.

Many of the cuts he has missed, including a big one at the Volvo PGA Championships at Wentworth, were by a single shot. The talent is still there simmering under the surface.

Le Mesurier admits that he has found the European Tour even tougher than he imagined, but amidst the debris of a disappointing season, he's stumbled on some gemstones of wisdom.

It's been a tough learning process but hopefully Le Mesurier will emerge a better player in the long run.