Coltart seeks Tour reprieve

By Brian Keogh

Ryder Cup ace Andrew Coltart believes this week's Q-School agony could revive his career.

The Scot, 37, lost his card this year when he finished 168th in the money list and failed to keep it through the top 40 in career earnings.

But he is determined to get his card back and get on with the "unfinished business" of his career until his mid-40s.

Resigned to his fate, Coltart said: "I am here to win. I am strangely looking forward to it because I am hoping this can kick-start the career again.

"I have been at the Tour School twice before. I got my card in 1992, lost it and went back to the School in 1993 and won it straight back again. After that I was on Tour for 14 years.

"I am still young enough at 37 years old and I still haven’t achieved all that I wanted to achieve and the only way to achieve that is getting stuck in here this week and getting back out there again.

"I have a lot of unfinished business. There is a lot I want to do but I am more mature now in terms of how I go about it.

"I am probably more realistic because I am older and longer in the tooth and have seen a lot of what it is like.

"But I still have desires and there is still a lot of money out there that I think I could earn. We play to engrave our names on the silverware but the money is a nice perk."

Capped at Brookline in 1999, Coltart is one of two Ryder Cup players in action this week alongside Swede Joakim Haeggman.

In total, 29 European Tour winners are teeing it up including former Irish Open champions David Carter and Patrik Sjoland as well as last year's Q-School joint winner Alexandre Rocha.

Coltart has been inspired by US star Jay Haas, who earned Ryder Cup honours at 48 in 2004 and now dominates the Champions Tour.

He said: "I look at what he did and think 'you have got ages left as long as you stay fit and healthy and look after yourself.' I’d settle for five years at the minute but I want to be playing until my mid-40s."