Since 1931, generations of the country's leading male golfers have left wife, family and other loved ones at Eastertime, so as to indulge their competitive instincts in the West of Ireland championship. But this year, instead of heading to the north west, their focus will be on the European Club.

Paddy Gribben heads what promises to be a strong field in the third staging of the European Challenge Cup. It is the brainchild of Pat Ruddy and will provide welcome, Easter competition now that the "West" has been switched to May 1st to 4th at Enniscrone.

Michael McGinley, Gary Cullen and Arthur Pierse are among those who will be challenging the European Strokeplay champion. But the appearance of reigning West of Ireland champion Noel Fox, is in doubt, because of his Walker Cup aspirations.

The 25-year-old Dubliner, who is a plus-one handicap member of Portmarnock, has ended speculation about his future by making a firm commitment to the amateur game. "I will not be turning professional, certainly not in the forseeable future," he said yesterday.

Fox explained: "Serious doubts began to take hold early last year when I played on the Tommy Armour Tour in Florida. It became a great wake-up call in terms of my ambitions of making it on the European Tour.

"I saw good, talented young professionals, around my age, living in camper-vans and having to tell a waiting wife that there would be no pay cheque this week. Since then, I have given the matter a lot of thought. And I now believe that you need to have exceptional talent, like Spain's Sergio Garcia, to make it on the circuit." So, his main target for this season is to become a player in the Walker Cup team to face the Americans at Nairn, on September 11th and 12th. In the meantime, Fox's competitive season starts on March 15th in the Sunningdale Foursomes, in which he partners Royal Dublin professional Leonard Owens.

From there, he goes to Nairn for Walker Cup squad training under professional Peter Townsend. The other Irish players in the 20-member squad are Gribben, Garth McGimpsey and the American-based Eamon Brady (East Tennessee University) and Michael Hoey (Clemson). After that, there is the Irish squad training at Quinta de Peru, in Portugal.

Fox's problem at Easter is that the competition at The European Club clashes with the Duncan Putter 72-holes strokes tournament in Wales. "This is one of seven events which are being designated as Walker Cup qualifiers," he said. "The problem is that my options are already greatly reduced."

As a consequence of an increasingly congested fixture list, the Lytham Trophy clashes with the West of Ireland which Fox will be defending. And another Walker Cup "trial", the Brabazon Trophy, clashes with the Irish Amateur Open Championship at Royal Dublin on May 14th to 16th.

A considerable boost for Irish Walker Cup aspirants, however, is the decision of the GUI to send a six-member squad to the St Andrew's Links Trophy on May 22nd and 23rd. "That's going to be very important," said Fox. "By winning it two years ago, Justin Rose effectively nailed down his place in the team for Quaker Ridge."

Meanwhile, the European Challenge Cup, for which entries close on March 19th, offers a very welcome Easter alternative to category-one players. From an 18-hole strokeplay qualifying stage on Good Friday, the leading 36 will be split into four, nine-member groups to engage in round robin matchplay on the Saturday and Sunday. In three-balls, each competitor will play two opponents simultaneously, which means he will complete eight matches in two days.

The winners of the four groups then advance to the semi-final stage on Easter Monday morning, with the final scheduled for that afternoon.