MADISON, Mississippi – While US and European golf stars meet for the Ryder Cup in Wales this week, the lesser lights of the US PGA Tour begin a five-event fight to keep their jobs at the Viking Classic on Thursday.

John Daly, the 1995 British Open and 1991 PGA Championship winner, will try to end a six-year victory drought to claim a 2011 tour berth or jump from 194th on the money list into the top 125 who earn spots on next year's tour.

Daly, who has no plans to play in the tour's qualifying tournament if he fails to make the 2011 lineup on prize money, has made 12 of 17 cuts this year but pocketed only 140,295 dollars and cracked the top 40 only once.

A field of 132 will play for the 648,000-dollar top prize at the 3.6 million-dollar event, which had its 2009 edition wiped out by storms, a first in the tournament's 43-year history.

As the final charge begins, the target man in 125th place is Chris Stroud with 611,069 dollars. Stroud was forced into the qualifier three years in a row before finishing 113th last year to claim a spot.

Fellow American John Merrick is 11,834 dollars behind him in 126th, the most painful spot of all after next month's concluding event.

Sweden's Henrik Stenson, while only 122nd on the money list, has clinched a tour spot through 2014 by virtue of his 2009 Players Championship victory.

Other notables fighting for their future in the next month include two-time US Open winner Lee Janzen and former US Ryder Cup player Chris DiMarco.

International hopes include India's Jeev Milkha Singh, who stands 167th on the money list, and Japan's Ryuji Imada, who stands 108th but finds himself needing to fend off rivals in the final weeks to assure a 2011 berth.

A few players who are safely set for next year simply want to round their game into shape, such as South Africa's Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion who has been nagged by a wrist injury for nearly two years.

"It's just a matter of getting out there and getting off to a good start and continuing to build on that momentum," said Immelman, whose wife is expecting a baby in seven weeks.

"This year has really been a year of trying to get out of the bad habits that I got into playing injured. I feel like I'm sort of scratching away at that and starting to get better with every tournament I play."