IT’S the Nedbank Golf Challenge this week and then it will be over to Dubai for the climax of the European Tour season, while hopefuls will be in Spain looking at Tour School to try to secure a place for 2017.

Graeme Storm had even paid his Tour School fee before learning over the weekend that he has received a dramatic reprieve and handed his car back, meaning he can plan ahead of another 12 months among the best.

But the North-East and North Yorkshire will only have three Tour players next year as things stand, after both Rob Dinwiddie and John Parry lost their playing privileges. Here is a look back where it has gone right and wrong for the region’s best.

CHRIS PAISLEY

Race to Dubai: 67

Tournaments played: 29

2017 Race to Dubai earnings: €454,607

Missed cuts: 13

Best finish: Tied third at Italian Open

Greens in regulation: 64.38%

Born and raised in Stocksfield, Paisley has followed up his promising 2015 – when he finished third in the BMW International Open – with a similar year this time around.

What matters to Paisley is that he will be playing on the European Tour again and he will be keen to break into the coveted top 60, which secures a place in the Dubai World Championship at the end.

He has had four top ten finishes and those have effectively made him the best ranked player from this area this year, even though his season started off with four missed cuts in a row.

The 30-year-old has earned around €100,000 euros in his last two outings at the Portugal Masters and the Turkish Airlines Open.

GRAEME STORM

Race to Dubai: 111

Tournaments played: 28

2017 Race to Dubai earnings: €247,647

Missed cuts: 12

Best finish: Tied seventh at Czech Masters

Greens in regulation: 68.23%

After an incredible few weeks the Hartlepool pro has learned he will be playing on Tour for a 16th year. It had looked as if his final putt at the 18th in the Portugal Masters last month would prove costly, and for a while it did, but he was handed his card back on Sunday after Patrick Reed was officially unranked having failed to play in the required number of tournaments.

Storm has been close to losing his card in the final couple of months for the last few years, but never as close as this time around. Next year the challenge will be to avoid a repeat.

There were highs of finishing in the top ten in Czech Masters and the BMW International Open, and he earned decent money at the Alfred Dunhill Links and Dubai Desert Classic.

But he readily admits he didn’t play consistently enough over the year and that is what got him into a bit of trouble. Storm is desperate to avoid such worries next time around.

ROB DINWIDDIE

Race to Dubai: 116

Tournaments played: 27

2017 Race to Dubai earnings: €229,801

Missed cuts: 12

Best finish: Tied ninth at BMW International Open

Greens in regulation: 68.59%

It’s Tour School for the man from Barnard Castle after he finished an agonising five places outside the top 111 places that automatically earned a Tour Card.

Dinwiddie, if he chooses this path and Tour School is not successful, is facing his first Challenge Tour season since 2013 and this year just never really got going.

Last year the 33-year-old was indebted to three big pay days for good finishes whereas this time around he was unable to build on signs of improvements in the first half of the year when he did well in Australia, Thailand and then Germany.

In September, Dinwiddie boosted his earnings by around €30,000 with respectable finishes at the European Open and the Portugal Masters, but that big finish he needed just never materialised and now he is facing a battle to reclaim his card in Spain next week.

JOHN PARRY

Race to Dubai: 180

Tournaments played: 23

2017 Race to Dubai earnings: €61,126

Missed cuts: 14

Best finish: Tied 28th at British Masters

Greens in regulation: 56.89%

It was one of those years for the man from Harrogate. Now he is facing up to having to battle his way back on to the top table again, where he has been since leaving Challenge Tour behind in 2012.

He had a chance of a decent financial boost at the Paul Lawrie Match Play event at Scotland’s Archerfield, but failed to make the top 32 stage which would have earned him a decent payday.

Other than that he did fare well at the British Masters in October, claiming €30,000 but that was followed by tied 69th at the Portugal Masters; combined that wasn’t enough to power his way up the rankings.

The 29-year-old, who turns 30 this month, has lost his Tour card and he must now focus on trying to get it back.

SIMON DYSON

Race to Dubai: 212

Tournaments played: 23

2017 Race to Dubai earnings: €29,432

Missed cuts: 17

Best finish: Tied 44th at Portugal Masters

Greens in regulation: 59.36%

The Malton & Norton golfer saved his best for last this year, but that wasn’t enough to get him up the rankings. In fact he would have had to win it to achieve his goal of forcing his way into the top 110, such has been his frustrating year.

That €10,400 boost he received in Vilamoura last month was the last of only five pay days and none of the others saw him finish in the top 50.

It has been a nightmare for a 38-year-old boasting six European Tour wins, although the last of those were when he won two in the same year at the Irish and KLM Opens.

But Dyson is safe in the knowledge that he retain his Tour card anyway because of where he rests in the career earnings list.