IF experience counts, then PGA professional Nick Ludwell must be one of the favourites for this year's premier championship involving Britain's top club pros.

He tees up in the first three-ball on Wednesday, May 24, over his own course at Selby.

He's one of 70 professionals from the north-east, vying for 15 places available to the region in next month's 72-hole final of the Glenmuir Club Professional Championship.

And the venue, Prince's Golf Club, near Sandwich, suits the former European Tour player down to the ground. Four years ago Ludwell, then aged 30, blew away the field in the Pokermillion.com PGA Europro Tour event with a final-round record 63, giving him victory and his career-best cheque of £10,000.

Ludwell, who played most of his formative years at Selby, confines his competitive outings more or less to PGA North Region events, but he did notch up some formidable air miles during his one full year on the European Tour, in 2000.

Unfortunately that wasn't sustained by earnings of any consequence, largely, he reckons, because his tournament category was such that, unlike the established players, he was afforded little notice of a place in the following week's tournament.

Enhancing the high-quality field at Selby are a number of players with impressive pedigrees.

Andrew Hare from Woodhall Spa was a member of the winning Walker Cup side in 1989 at Peachtree, Georgia, where he picked up two points from three outings, and was third in the 1992 Turespana Masters, part of the European Tour.

Huddersfield's Paul Carman was twice a member of the PGA Cup team against the United States (1990 and 1996), while the name of David Shacklady (Mossock Hall) just seems to have been cropping up in PGA North Region events for years. He has now chalked up more than 120 wins.

The rewards for the top finishers in Kent, from June 13-16 are attractive. The winner picks up £10,000 from a prize fund of £78,000, and almost guarantees himself a place in the ten-man PGA Cup team to visit the United States next year.

He has the use of a top-of-the-range Peugeot for a year, the leading ten finishers will be exempt from regional qualifying for The Open, and the top 20 are exempt from next year's regional qualifying for the Glenmuir event.

Updated: 10:44 Saturday, May 13, 2006