in this week's stop on the Canadian Tour.

Swan who missed the cut at last week's $100,000 Payless Open in Victoria, was one of 120 players competing for the remaining openings in the $100,000 Xerox BC Open at Point Grey Golf Club in Vancouver. Six players tied at two over 73 went into a play-off to grab the last spot in the tournament which begins tomorrow.

For a time on Monday morning Swan was wondering if he'd ever get to the course. The 34-year-old St. George's Golf Club pro left his hotel room to find his rental car had a flat tyre. Swan fixed the flat, but then got lost while trying to return the car to the rental agency, and found himself on the highway heading towards Seattle.

Swan got the car safely back to the hotel, took a shuttle bus to the course -- and then promptly bogeyed the first hole, a short par five, after hitting his drive into the trees. But Swan, demonstrating the mental toughness he has been working on this week, settled down to record 17 consecutive pars.

"The first three holes taught me a quick lesson,'' Swan said. "Before the round I thought I could be one under after those holes. But the way things worked out I could easily have beem two or three over and yet I came out of them only one over par.

"Those holes were real eye openers. They told me if I wanted to qualify I had to play the ball from the fairway.'' With that in mind, Swan hit a driver off the tee only once the rest of the way, prefering instead to use his three wood and one iron. That conservative approach was also in evidence on the putting surface.

"I had to avoid being overly aggressive,'' he said. "I figured 71 or 72 would be good enough to qualify after I took a look at the leader board as I left the 11th green. I didn't want to trade birdies with bogeys, so I played real conservative on the greens and played for two putts.