Good friends they may be but at the minute Graeme McDowell and Chris Devlin are playing their golf at opposite ends of the spectrum.

McDowell is in Germany practicing for the Mercedes-Benz Championship, his last event before heading off to Kentucky for next week’s Ryder Cup.

Devlin, on the other hand, is at the less auspicious venue of Dundonald in Ayrshire as he enters the first stage of European Tour qualifying today.

The Ballymena man hit the headlines back in June when he outshone McDowell, Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy as the only Ulsterman to qualify for the US Open.

Rounds of 84 and 83 made that short-lived experience in a tournament which will go down in history as the Major Tiger Woods won on one leg.

Based in Alabama, Devlin returned to the Hooters Tour and since then has had two top five finishes and so far this season has won almost $20,000.

He said at the US Open that he would attend qualifying school in both America and Europe this year and this is the first step.

But it's a long, hard slog to gaining a Tour card from the first stage and few who are thrown into the mix right from the start last the distance.

A total of 810 players have entered the first stage played at six venues and roughly a quarter of them will make it through to stage two when they will be joined by players from the Challenge Tour. Then those players from the European Tour who fail to hold onto their cards via the Order of Merit join in the fun at the third round stage.

McDowell, number 30 in the world, has no such concerns and has already earned €1,673,000 this season and is battling it out for a first prize of €333,330 in Germany.

Meanwhile, McIlroy is left kicking his heels this week as he failed to make it into the field for the Mercedes-Benz.

Jean-Francois Lucquin, the man who beat him in Sunday’s play-off at the European Masters is included because of that victory but the young Ulsterman is tenth reserve and did not even travel to Cologne.

Still, he picked up €222,220 for his second place and he has climbed to 46th in the Order of Merit.

Had he won the play-off he would have jumped to 33rd and made it into the top hundred in the world rankings, one of his major goals for this year. As it is he is 111th but he won’t be able to try and improve on that until the British Masters at the Belfry at the end of this month.

He then plays the Dunhill Links where he finished third last year in such spectacular fashion to secure his playing rights from just his first two events as a professional.