Sport

Nolan gets late call-up

Ireland's Keith Nolan and England's Paul Curry have received late call-ups for the £1

Thu Mar 30 2000 - 01:00

Ireland's Keith Nolan and England's Paul Curry have received late call-ups for the £1.76 million BellSouth Classic starting in Atlanta today.

Former Walker Cup player Nolan, a graduate from the US Tour qualifying school, has missed five out of six cuts so far this season, comes in for Jesper Parnevik. Curry, another school graduate, has made only one halfway cut in four starts this season, replaces Peter Jacobsen. Jesper Parnevik, now down to third on the American money list behind Tiger Woods and Players' Championship winner Hal Sutton, has decided to rest before next week's Masters at Augusta.

Nolan, a former Irish amateur champion, picked up only $17,203 in his first season and last year had to drop down to the Nike mini-tour. He has yet to break 70 in 15 rounds this season.

Curry currently languishes in 195th place on the money list ($6,600) and Nolan 201st ($6,000) so every start they get is important for their hopes of securing a card for next year.

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Curry, one of only eight players to have a round of 60 on the European circuit - he achieved it at Gleneagles in 1992 at the Scottish Open - came through the school at the second attempt after losing his European card.

David Duval defends the title he won last year. That was his fourth win of the year and he took over from Woods at the top of the world rankings as a result - but he has not won since.

Nick Faldo has not won for over three years, but maybe his partnership in the first two rounds with Greg Norman will help to inspire him.

It was against Norman that Faldo staged his remarkable comeback to win the 1996 Masters. The Australian led the entire field by six with a round to go, then collapsed to a 78 while Faldo shot 67 to win. Jose Maria Olazabal will be attempting to lift his third Masters next week, but he goes into the final warm-up event low on confidence - as he was last year.

The other Europeans taking part this week are Open runnerup Jean Van de Velde - second in Tucson a month ago - Miguel Angel Jimenez, Swede Gabriel Hjertstedt and Las Vegas-based Ed Fryatt.