FERRIE EAGER TO MAKE UP

LOST GROUND IN NEXT

WEEK'S BUICK INVITATIONAL

US PGA Tour rookie Kenneth Ferrie from the North-east of England is eager to play well at next week's Buick Invitational after suffering an unfortunate start to his 2008 campaign.
The 29-year-old Englishman, pictured right, was forced to pull out before the third round of last week's Sony Open because of a stomach virus when in position to challenge over the weekend.
Opening scores of 66 and 70 at Waialae Country Club, Hawaii had left him seven shots off the lead but his premature withdrawal cost him official prize money in the Tour's second event of the season.
"I didn't expect to get official prize money so that wasn't a big deal for me," Ferrie said after returning to Britain this week on family business.
"It was pretty bad for me at Waialae as I had to go and see a doctor who put me on a drip. I woke up on Saturday morning feeling a bit rough and it got worse as the day went on."
Ferrie, a double winner on the European Tour, plans to make up for lost time and earnings when he returns to the US circuit at Torrey Pines outside San Diego next week.
"It's quite important early on to try to get off to a decent start and get a little bit of money up," he said. "It doesn't have to be millions of dollars, although that would help.
"As long as you get off the mark quite early and you start ticking away a little bit every week, it will hopefully move me up from 30th, where I am now, into the top 10 or 15, which will give me a few more starts later in the year."
Ferrie earned his US PGA Tour card by tying for 14th at the 2007 qualifying tournament and began this season in 30th spot among those qualifiers and others from the Nationwide Tour.
When the West Coast swing ends on February 24, all those qualifiers will be reshuffled, based on their earnings from this year.
"I want to play out in America as much as I can and my first goal is to get my card money up so that I am safe for next year," he said. "After that I will re-assess where I am at and what I want to do after that.
"I can't control how other people play or where I will be in the reshuffle. I'll just have to concentrate on my own game and make sure I do everything I have to do. If it works out, it works out and if it doesn't, it doesn't."
Ferrie, who won the biggest title of his career at the 2005 European Open, believes his experience at the highest level should stand him in good stead on the US PGA Tour.
"I'm a two-time winner on the European Tour, and won two times on the Challenge Tour and yet at 29 I'm back to being a rookie," he said.
"It's one of those strange situations where a lot of the other rookies are 20, 21 years old with not much experience and yet I feel I have quite a lot.
"If I get in the position to win, I know I'm capable of doing it. I know what to expect and I know what to do and what not to do."
Ferrie burst on to the global stage with a share of sixth place in the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot where he started the final round tied for the lead with Phil Mickelson.
He also played in last year's Masters at Augusta, where he missed the cut, and in the US Open at Oakmont, where he tied for 42nd.
"At Winged Foot and Oakmont, I felt very comfortable playing those golf courses because they set up well for my game," he said.
"The more different style courses we play on the US PGA Tour, the better for me and the more chance I will have of winning an event."