Twelve Australians have advanced to the Final Stage of European Tour Qualifying School which begins in Spain on Friday evening AEDT, seven of whom last week progressed via Second Stage.

They now have six rounds to determine whether they will have somewhere significant to play in 2020 and perhaps shape the very nature of their careers or have to return home to Australia and map out Plan B.

The Australian contingent are amongst a sea of 156 players who will fight it out for one of 25 tickets to the European Tour next year, a torturous test of physical and mental capabilities to be conducted over a total of 108 holes at Lumine Golf Club in Tarragona, Spain.

Given the change in the way US PGA TOUR cards are distributed and the scrapping of its own six-round Q School examination, the European Tour’s gateway to the elite level can now rightly be viewed as the toughest test in golf.

When Lawson emerged from 10 rounds in 14 days with a European Tour card 12 months ago, he said in a piece for the PGA of Australia that, “I was as mentally and physically drained as I’ve ever been in my life”.

As for a return to Q School in future, Lawson added, “I hope I never have to go through that again but at least if I do I’ll know what to expect and how to handle it.”

After a year in which he had three top-30 finishes and wound up 187th on the Race to Dubai rankings, he returns to golf purgatory just 12 months later to prove it.

For the young brigade who have earned a crack at the big time it presents as a moment of immense opportunity.

Victor at the New Zealand Open in March, Zach Murray has made an immediate impression on the professional ranks in his rookie season, jumping more than 500 places on the Official World Golf Rankings after his victory at The Hills Golf Club and now 495th having spent the majority of his year to date in Asia and Japan.

Like Murray, Micheluzzi and Windred also appear to be on the verge of a smooth transition out of the amateur ranks having only turned professional on the wake of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in September.

Hailing from Newcastle but playing out of The Australian Golf Club more recently, Windred carries momentum into Final Stage having topped Second Stage qualifying at Desert Springs by five strokes despite a final round of 4-over 76.

Tied for third as an amateur at last year’s NSW Open, the 20-year-old has recorded top 10 finishes in each of his two starts since turning professional at both the Victorian PGA Championship and TX Civil & Logistics WA PGA Championship.

Queensland’s Jake McLeod was rewarded for his PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit win last year with a season in Europe in 2019 and advanced straight to Final Stage after finishing 150th in the Race to Dubai rankings, Kiwi Josh Geary also earning direct access by his 27th-place finish on the Challenge Tour rankings.

The other Aussies playing this week are Jordan Zunic, Jarryd Felton, Ben Ferguson and Simon Hawkes and all have one thing in common with the other eight; after this week none of them will want to play six days straight in Spain ever again.