A TRIO of south Essex golfers are set to be involved when the European Masters gets underway today.

Matt Southgate, Richard McEvoy and Daniel Brooks will tee off in the latest PGA European Tour event, which is being held at Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club, Switzerland.

Brooks, who hails from Basildon, will be the first south Essex golfer involved as he starts on the first tee at 7am UK time.

Canada’s Austin Connelly and Thomas Detry, of Belgium, will join Brooks at the first tee.

However, McEvoy and Southgate will have to wait until the afternoon to get underway.

McEvoy is due to tee off at 12noon UK time alongside Scotsman Richie Ramsay and Andrew Dodt, of Australia.

Southgate will start an hour later, with Frenchman Grégory Bourdy and Dean Burmester, of South Africa, joining him at the first tee.

The south Essex trio have made the trip to Switzerland having competed in the Made in Denmark contest last week.

Southgate and McEvoy walked away with prize money, having put in stellar performances, while Brooks was left frustrated as he was cut at the midway point of the competition.

Thorpe Hall Golf Club member Southgate finished 11 under par and tied for 20th place.

Southgate registered 68 and 69 shots in rounds one and three, while 70 strokes were needed to complete rounds two and four.

Due to Southgate’s successful outing, he was able to claim close to £15,000 in prize money.

Fellow Thorpe Hall member McEvoy finished eight under par and finished in joint-37th place.

McEvoy, who claimed the first European Tour triumph of his career at the Porsche European Open in July, needed just 67 shots to complete all 18 holes in the first round.

However, McEvoy was unable to produce a better score in the following rounds as he needed 71, 70 and 72 strokes to round off rounds two, three and four respectively.

As a result, the 39-year-old pocketed more than £8,600 in prize money.

Meanwhile, Brooks missed the cut for a fifth consecutive tournament.

Rounds of 72 and 71 saw Brooks get to the halfway point one under par, but it was not enough to progress at Silkeborg Ry Golf Club.