Upbeat McGinley eyes big US prize

THESE are hectic times for Europe’s top golfers, many of whom have contested the HSBC World Match Play Championship, the Seve Trophy and the Dunhill Links in successive weeks.

Instead of a well deserved break, many undertook mammoth plane journeys yesterday to San Francisco for the €6.2 million American Express World Championship.

After finishing 41st in the Dunhill Links Championship, Paul McGinley will see this as a welcome opportunity to bank a whole lot more Ryder Cup points. He is in the mood to make an impression having finished tied third in the most recent World Championships NEC Invitational at Akron in August. He is part of a 33-strong European Tour challenge at the Harding Park club.

McGinley is joined in the States by Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell but not by Darren Clarke who withdrew over the weekend because of his wife's illness.

Incidentally, McDowell's recent run of disappointing form combined with a spinal injury has seen him drop out of the world's top 50 and so could miss out on some of the game's most lucrative tournaments.

Meanwhile, the European and Challenge Tours come together for the fourth and final dual ranking event of the 2005 schedule in Tenerife.

Many of The European Tour's leading players will be jostling for places in the end of season Volvo Masters, while others are fighting for their place in the top 115 on The

European Tour Order of Merit.

For the Challenge Tour professionals, this week represents the opportunity to secure a place in the all important top 20 on the rankings given the sizeable €450,000 prize fund on offer to those players currently trying to make their way onto golf's biggest stage. The Irishmen involved are Stephen Browne, recent winner of the Kazakhstan Open which moved him up to 22nd in the order of merit; Michael Hoey and David Higgins already assured of their full card for 2006 and currently standing 3rd and 7th in the money list, Colm Moriarty in 35th spot along with Tim Rice and Justin Kehoe.