ON the face of it, Paul Eales leads the kind of life most golfers can only dream about.

Last week, for instance, he donned his media cap and relayed the action from the lush green Wentworth fairways as on course reporter for BBC television during the BMW Championship.

Yesterday, the 42-year-old long-time attached Royal Lytham and St Anne's tournament professional was playing at Chepstow club St Pierre in the PGA Wales Open qualifier.

And today, he's at Marriott Worsley Park competing in the first round of the Morson International Pro-am Challenge.

Between playing and broadcasting, Eales runs corporate days for his sponsor Northern Rock and conducts seminars for coaching group Instinctive Golf.

Ranking

But he'll gladly exchange it all for the return of the European Tour card he lost nearly four years ago. He said: "I've a full diary and I'm enjoying life, but I'm first and foremost a professional golfer and want to play at the top level again."

A high finish this week would ensure Eales accrues enough points to increase his ranking, and give him the impetus to try to win back his card via the Challenge Tour.

"A win would also mean that I would not have to ask for invitations to play the rest of the fixtures this season," said Eales.

Eales pegged up this morning with England amateur star David Horsey, from Styal, and Wrexham-based Simon Edwards, who played all four rounds at Wentworth. But he made a faltering start with a bogey at the tough third hole, which Horsey birdied to get back to level par after dropping a shot at the first.

The early pace was set by England's Zane Scotland, who picked up three birdies in an excellent outward half of three-under-par 32.

The top 60 players and ties to make the 36-hole cut tomorrow will join forces with an amateur for the last two rounds, in an event run in association with the Manchester Evening News.

There is no charge for spectators.