HAMPSHIRE'S blue riband event, the PGA Strokeplay Championship takes place at South Winchester next Monday and Tuesday without three of its leading players.

An unfortunate clash of dates with the first of the European PGA qualifying schools, means that John Lovell, Richard Berry and Kevin Saunders will be absent from the county's 54-hole showpiece.

All three men have made a sizeable impact on the Hampshire PGA season with Lovell winning the Hampshire Matchplay title at nearby Royal Winchester and both Berry and Saunders grabbing half-a-dozen wins apiece on the proam circuit.

The fixture switch - the Hampshire PGA was originally pencilled in for the first week of September - is a double edged sword for Barton-on-Sea tour-nament player Saunders.

His original plan was to try for his European Tour card but he's lost his sponsor and can't afford to go for it now. He estimates it costs around £3,000 in entry fees, travel and hotel expenses to go all the way to Final Tour School, and he can't stretch to that now.

But because the original intention was to go for his card, Saunders didn't enter the Hampshire PGA Championship so he misses out on that as well.

Hampshire PGA secretary Diana Bryon said: "We didn't want to run up against the first qualifying school but had no alternative because the first week in September wasn't convenient with South Winchester and we have to take the dates they offer us."

The loss of the talented trio confirms Richard Bland's position as strong favourite next week - and who would dare bet against the Stoneham ace who already has six Hampshire majors under his belt.

He won the strokeplay title two years ago after a fair old battle with Rob Edwards who significantly has just taken over from Berry at the top of the Hampshire PGA order of merit and could be Bland's biggest rival at South Winchester.

Both Bland and Edwards have the kind of quality which has stood up at European Challenge Tour level. Bland, who won the second of the European qualifying schools last year, had problems with his swing early season, but coach Martin Butcher has helped get him back in a good rhythm again.

"I just need to start sinking a few putts again," says Bland, who is lying in the top 60 in the Challenge Tour rankings and at the moment is on schedule to come in for the second stage of European qualifying.

Defending champion Greg Hughes and top-ranking South region player Gary Stubbington are both in the field next week along with Jon Barnes, Danny Harris and Jon Le Roux, all of them winners of Hampshire majors within the last two years.

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