Year after year, there is a rush of hot-blooded, young Irish players into the professional ranks. The lure of filthy lucre, as well as the chance to chase their dream on one of the tours around the world, often proves irresistible. Invariably, though, the headlong charge of Irish golfers into the paid game is one that has an obvious gender imbalance: they are virtually always men.

It is one of the anomalies of the influence that Ireland has on international golf that its representation in the women's professional arena is minuscule. Indeed, only one player, Aideen Rogers, is a full-time member on the women's European Tour. In contrast, there are upwards of 20 Irish male golfers contesting the various professional tours.

And three of them - Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley - are ranked inside the top 50 in the world rankings.

The sense of inequality between men and women isn't just confined to who is allowed use which bar in the clubhouse, it seems. In terms of financial rewards out in the dog-eat-dog world of professional golf, the rewards are stacked in favour of the men.

In Europe alone, the prize-money on offer to the sexes is stark. The men are fighting it out for over £80 million sterling in a season; the women are playing for just over st £5 million. Take away the Evian Masters (£1.3 million) and the British Open (£1 million) and the pot seems even smaller.

All of which helps explain why many Irish women who may contemplate a career on the professional circuit don't actually make the quantum leap into that way of life.

"A lot of Irish players who possibly have the game to succeed on tour are just afraid to do it, they're afraid to take the chance," says Rogers. "They've got used to their nine to five jobs, got that bit of security, and start to rely on that security." The fear factor for Irish women golfers is probably justified.

Although the women are playing for considerably less prize-money, their expenses - particularly with so many tournaments taking place on continental Europe - are just as high as their male counterparts.

Rogers estimates that her average expenses playing on the tour would be £1,000 sterling a week: a bit less when playing in Britain or Ireland, and more when playing on the continent or in the Far East or Australia, where the women's tour now stretches in its efforts to broaden its base.

To put it in perspective, the Dubliner made the cut and finished tied 36th in the Waterford Crystal Irish Open which finished at Faithlegg on Sunday. Her prize-money amounted to £733.33 sterling. She has played 11 tournaments this season and her total prize-money amounts to £2,591.83 sterling.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the figures don't add up. "Our prize-money is not going up, but the price of living certainly is," she emphasised.

In fact, Rogers' survival on the women's European Tour is effectively down to the backing she has received from Golf Team Ireland, a joint venture between the public and private sectors that gives financial assistance to those kick-starting professional careers.

Ironically, for Rogers, this season's battle to keep her card comes just a year after she enjoyed her best season on the tour. In the 2000 season, she finished 36th in the Order of Merit and set out this season with increased ambitions.

"I desperately want to move on to the next level, because I believe that I still have to play my best golf. At the start of the season I made some swing adjustments that I believed would help me do that, but things have taken time to work out and it got to the stage where I was putting too much pressure on myself and dreaded the thought of going out onto the course. I was stressed out, and anyone who knows me knows that I am not that sort of person at all."

While Rogers is in the role of the lone Irish player on the women's European Tour - although former Curtis Cup player Suzanne O'Brien intends to travel to the qualifying school at the end of the season - she is not the trend-setter. In fact, Lilian Behan, the former British Amateur champion, and Debbie Hanna spent the best part of a decade battling it out on what was a fledgling women's tour that was forever fighting to escape the shadows of its male equivalent.

These days, Hanna is one of the most respected teaching professionals in the country. Based at the Blackwood golfing facility outside Belfast, her touring professional career was cut short by a ligament/tendon injury in her arm that necessitated three operations and forced her to quit tour life.

She's not surprised, though, that more Irish players haven't taken the plunge into the fiercely competitive world of tour professionals on the women's circuit.

"Playing as top amateurs here, they are big fish in a wee pond . . . once they go out there, it is a different world. In amateur golf, everything is done for them. Once they turn professional, they are into a situation where everyone is fighting for their livelihood. They have to get from A to B and, to succeed, you have to become quite a selfish person."

Hanna, who played in the Irish Open and made the cut, could never see herself even contemplating a return to the demands of tournament golf. "It's nice to play in the Irish Open, but I couldn't go back to tournament play. At least as a club professional you work hard and you put the hours in and get the results . . . and you are guaranteed a pay cheque at the end of the week."

Rogers believes that, given Ireland's status in golf, the country should be represented on the women's professional circuit and she would like to see more players join her.

"You look at the Swedes, for instance, and their Team Sweden set-up. I've never been able to do anything like them; bring out their coaches, have full-time caddies, and even have their sports psychologists with them. There are players from Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Spain . . . everywhere . . . and they can't wait to get out onto the tour.

"Irish girls are afraid to make the move, and there wouldn't be too many people pushing them. The ILGU tend to want to hang on to their players and wouldn't be advising them into making a move into the professional game. That's not a criticism, it is perfectly understandable.

"But if you contrast that with the Team Sweden situation, they bring you to a certain level and give their players the opportunity. 'If you want to turn professional, then here's the information you need'. It is just a different outlook, a different approach," observed Rogers.

Although O'Brien, relatively late in her golfing career, has made the decision to attend qualifying school, there doesn't appear to be much likelihood that Rogers will be joined by a mad rush of young Irish women players seeking to test out life on the professional circuit.

For most, it seems, it is a step - and a risk - too far. So, while another batch of Irish males prepare to make the move from the amateur ranks into professional life over the next couple of months with the various q-schools looming on the horizon, the number of Irish women professionals on tour will remain minuscule compared with the country's stature in global golf.