The fickle nature of the sport wasn't lost on two of Ireland's touring professionals after the Cannes Open. While Thomas Levet walked away with a tour card and an exemption for two years, David Higgins and Christy O'Connor Jnr didn't even manage to secure a ticket into this week's Peugeot Spanish Open at the El Prat club where six Irishmen are competing.

Indeed, O'Connor was frustrated on the double yesterday when he discovered that he hadn't received a sponsors' invite into the event in Barcelona, nine of the ten available spots going to Spaniards and one to a Frenchman.

So, the lesson that you should never rely on others if you can do it yourself proved to be an expensive one for the Irish pair, but especially for Higgins - who is in a lowly 146th place in the moneylist.

He had put himself into contention in a European Tour event for the first time and a top-ten finish would have been sufficient to book his place in the field in Spain, but Higgins - who had a quadruple bogey in his third round - finished two shots outside the required number and, instead, will maintain his competitive edge by playing in the Challenge Tour event in Rimini in Italy this week. Six Irishmen will be in action in the Spanish Open which moves to the El Prat course for the first time since 1981 when Seve Ballesteros was the winner. Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley, Eamonn Darcy, Philip Walton, Raymond Burns and Des Smyth make up the Irish contingent. Incidentally, Spain is a happy hunting ground for the Irish: McGinley won his second European Tour event (the Oki Pro-Am) in Madrid last season; Smyth's last win on the circuit was in the Madrid Open in 1993; Harrington's only tour success was the Spanish Open in 1996, while Walton (Open Catalonia in 1995) and Darcy (Spanish Open in 1983) have also won on Spanish soil.

Meanwhile, the Nick Faldo-designed course at the Sporting Club Berlin has been confirmed as the venue for the German Open on August 6th-9th. The Par 72 7,042 yards lay-out is one of three at the resort in Bad Saarow, some 75km south-east of Berlin: another course has been designed by Arnold Palmer while a third, designed by Bernhard Langer, is on the drawing board.