As wake up calls go, it was probably as startling as having a bucket of ice cold water hurled over you in the army barrack bunks at 5am before being furiously bawled at by a ruddy-faced drill sergeant.

Stage one of the European Tour’s qualifying school finally drew to a conclusion last night and, at the end of four weeks of 72-hole shoot-outs across the UK and the continent, three of our most promising hopes for the future – Michael Stewart, David Law and James Byrne – are already pondering where to go next, having stumbled at the very first hurdle. Welcome to the real world.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, of course. Barely a month ago, everything was rosy. Law, who lifted the Scottish Amateur title for the second time in July, had become the first player from the unpaid ranks in over 30 years to win the Tartan Tour’s Northern Open, while Byrne and Stewart were celebrating victory with GB&I in the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen.

Management companies were hovering, invitations were being promised and thoughts were already turning to the lucrative bounty of the European Tour. And then the harsh reality of golf outside the comfort zone of the SGU elite set-up came barging in like an uninvited guest to throw a sodden blanket over the flames of optimism.

Stewart, who has delayed his move into the pro game until he has competed in next month’s South African Open as an amateur, was the first of the highly-rated trio to give the q-school a bash but a crippling 83, during the second round of his campaign in Cheshire a fortnight ago, put paid to his ambitions.

“I’ve been bitten on the backside,” winced Stewart in the aftermath of his stage one tumble.

The former Scottish Amateur champion, who is reportedly set to sign with Chubby Chandler’s management company ISM, has already declared his intention to compete in the third-tier Alps Tour’s qualifying school in November.

Like the PGA EuroPro Tour in the UK and the German-based EPD Tour, the Alps circuit does offer progress up the ladder, with the top-five on the money list at the end of each season moving on to the Challenge Tour. However, for Stewart the Alps Tour is, well, the third choice.

Byrne and Law, both now rookie pros, will also have to start thumbing through the brochures of Europe’s myriad satellite tours as they look to find a stage upon which to ply their trade after dispiriting and bitterly disappointing q-school missions.

Byrne finished six shots outside the cut-mark at Ribagolfe in Portugal last night with an 11-over 299, while Law failed to make the grade by 10 strokes at Frilford Heath in Oxford. To add to Scottish woes, Ross Kellett and Greg Paterson, both competing as amateurs, also found the examination too exacting.

As promised by the managers, there will be the occasional invitation, if not to main European Tour events then certainly to a few Challenge Tour contests, for Byrne and Law and there’s always the chance that one good finish could earn an exemption.

Yet trying to build a schedule out of bits here and pieces there is notoriously fraught, particularly in the early months of a fledgling pro career, when gaining a solid foothold is of the utmost importance.

Byrne has already benefited from the clout of his aides and gained a place in last week’s Dunhill Links Championship. However, the q-school was his chief focus and, having had little time to prepare for an ultimately fruitless qualifying campaign, you wonder if it did him more harm than good.

It is far too early to press the panic button, but failing at this first stage was certainly not in the script for Byrne, Stewart and Law. How they now respond to such a hefty, early dunt to morale will reveal a lot about them as golfers.