GARY EMERSON owes a big debt to the sports psychologist who helped him achieve the 'great escape'.

The 39-year-old Salisbury-based golfer says that a visit to John Pates two months ago saved his skin as a European Tour player.

"He's got me thinking differently so that I got into a more relaxed way of doing things out on the course," says Emerson.

"It's a thin line at this level and I wasn't quite there. After I saw John, I started to play a lot better and managed to force my way back into contention for my card which, quite honestly, had looked like a lost cause two months ago."

Emerson reaped the fruits in Rome recently when he secured his European Tour playing rights for next season by amargin of just £50 winnings.

Even as he flew home from Rome, Emerson didn't know his fate.

"I had a three o'clock flight and there was still a guy out on the golf course, Phil Golding, who could have left me without my card," he said.

"If he'd finish eighth, Philip would have made it instead of me. In the end he finished 11th but it wasn't until I got back into London and picked up some text messages that I knew I was safe - well, practically safe anyway."

There was still one nerve wracking ordeal to go through - waiting to see whether Tony Johnstone and Costantino Rocca would earn enough from the Volvo Masters to topple him.

They needed around £70,000 to oust him, but neither managed it and Broadstone tournament professional Emerson can now plan his European Tour campaign for next season.

It could start from as early as next week when the BMW Asian Open brings the curtain up on the new season.

"Chances are I might give it a miss and wait until the new year," says Emerson. "Part of the problem this season was that I played too much.

"I played virtually nine weeks non stop at the beginning of the year but I missed a few cuts, four by just one shot, and I was suddenly chasing my tail.

"When you get behind in the money order, you try and play as much as you can to try and catch up. I was spending too long away from my wife and two kids. Next year I will plan things better."

Three events in early autumn got Emerson's season back on track after he looked destined for a return to Tour School.

He earned a cool £48,000 from the German Masters, the Dunhill Links Championship and the Lancome Trophy and suddenly he was in sight of 115th place in the rankings, where he needed to be to secure his playing privileges for 2003. But he still had a mini mountain to climb.

"I needed good finishes in the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, but I got flu before the Spanish event. I felt so lousy that I got halfway up to the airport then turned the car round, went home and went straight to bed," he said.

"I managed to get a later flight but I had no energy for the tournament and missed the cut."

Then, in Italy, Emerson was four over after five holes and facing another crisis.

A brush with an advertising board which sent his approach shot to the fifth green rebounding back into the trees cost him a double bogey but that's perhaps where the gospel according to John Pates came into its own.

Emerson went on to limit the damage with a couple of birdies then, after a day's sightseeing in Rome when the second day was washed out, the big Salisbury man was coolness personified as he shot rounds of 67 and 68.

When Gordon Brand finished on the same seven-under-par total, Emerson shaded him by 70 euros for the last card. That's how close it was and Emerson admitted: "When you know things are that close, you can't afford to make a mistake.

"It feels like you have a gun to your head. I tend to cope okay with pressure; I did this time but I never want to go through that again."