test once this week -- and the $100,000 Xerox BC Open has not even started yet.

Bean, showing the sort of composure he will need in the main event, claimed the last of 16 qualifying spots yesterday at Vernon Golf Club with two consecutive pars in a five-player play-off for the two remaining positions in the second stop on the Canadian pro tour.

Ocean View head pro Dwayne Pearman and fellow-Bermudian Lloyd James each shot 77 and failed to qualify.

After double-bogeying the 18th hole to finish his qualifying round at two-over-par 74, Bean had to wait five hours for the rest of the field to finish to discover whether he had secured a tournament place. With 14 players at 73 or better, Bean and four others played off to determine the final two spots.

Bean played solidly in the play-off, parring the first hole and then hitting a 60-yard sand wedge to six feet with his third shot on the 520-yard par-five second hole. With Oklahoma's John Freeman and Washington pro Bob Paulis each in the hole in six, Bean needed only a comfortable two-putt to snag the final spot behind Australian Stuart Appleby, who birdied the hole.

"I tried to make the first putt, and when I got it to six inches from the cup, I thought `I can make this one','' a relieved Bean chuckled afterwards.

So Bean will stay around this week while Pearman -- widely considered Bermuda's top professional -- will head home. Pearmn, after a 50-yard chip-in for eagle at the 15th hole, needed to play the last three holes in one under to make the play-off. But he parred the 16th and 17th, and then double-bogeyed the 18th after his second shot to the 350-yard par four ended up on rocks at the bottom of an embankment to the right of the green.

Pearman, even par after five holes, first encountered trouble when his 225-yard approach on the sixth hole ended up behind a tree. "I tried to get too much on the next shot and had a whiff,'' he said. "As the club came down I hit a tree branch and it pulled the club off line and I missed the ball.'' Pearman finished with a triple-bogey seven on the hole.

Yesterday's round came four days after Pearman was disqualified from the first tour stop after signing an incorrect scorecard. "That's the first time that's ever happened to me,'' he said. "It's not a good feeling at all.'' James was here hoping to sharpen his game before he and Port Royal pro Frankie Rabain head for Florida later this month in an attempt to qualify for the US Senior Open. He was one under after a birdie at the second hole, but made the turn at four-over 40. James was seven over after a double-bogey at the par-three 14th and then birdied the 15th and 17th holes to finish at five over for the day.

"That was one stroke better than last week,'' said James, who fired a 78 in qualifying for the Victoria Payless Open. "I hit the ball better this week, but I had two double-bogeys on par-threes and I lost a lot of shots around the green.''