SCOTT Gregory is making plans for his rookie season as a professional golfer, but the Hampshire player faces at least three months trying to find somewhere to compete before the European Challenge Tour gets underway in the spring (writes Andrew Griffin).

Gregory has had two weeks to digest the disappointment of missing the cut at the third and final stage of the European Tour qualifying school at Lumine in Catalonia.

It means the 23-year-old former British Amateur champion will have a category 15 card, which should ensure him more than a dozen starts on the second string of European golf in 2018.

If he had made the cut, he would have earned a category nine card, giving him a full season of starts.

Gregory still has to find the financial backing to travel to the three continents that hosted the 31 events on the 2017 Challenge Tour in 22 different countries.

American Chase Koepka, the younger brother of US Open winner Brooks, had a category 15 card at the start of this year and went on to play in 18 events, finishing in the top three three times and earning €123,570 along the way.

It put him ninth overall in the Road to Oman rankings, earning the 23-year-old Florida State University graduate a full European Tour card for 2018.

That should encourage Gregory who could stay sharp by playing some of the mini tours in Spain and Portugal after Christmas.

The Corhampton member admitted that, with his immediate future at stake, he may have tried too hard at tour school.

“Maybe I wanted to play well too badly, which meant I did the opposite,” said Europe’s leading amateur in 2017. “I tried my heart out all week. I gave myself constant chances, I was hitting at least 14 greens in regulation in each round. That’s a lot of chances at birdie in a tournament when you finish two-over par.

“All these things are great things to learn. I hope never to have to go to tour school again, but only time will tell. One thing is for sure – I will giving it my all and I’m looking forward to what the 2018 season has in store.”

He could take comfort in the fact that Justin Rose, the former US Open winner who came close to being crowned European No 1 two weeks ago, had to go to tour school three times between 1998 and 2000.

And the fellow graduate from the Hampshire junior golf programme did not go on to win for another two years.