Open hopefuls could put Goosen in the shade

Retief Goosen returns to action following his superlative second US Open triumph when he plays in the Smurfit European Open at the K Club near Dublin tomorrow.

But once the €3m event is under way the South African, great player though he has now proved himself to be, might still find himself overshadowed by some late desperate bids to qualify for the Open in two weeks’ time and by the continuing battle for Ryder Cup points.

Justin Rose, Ian Woosnam, Jose Maria Olazabal and Jesper Parnevik are all fighting for places at Royal Troon – and they cannot all be there.

Two places are awarded this week off a table based on European form for the last seven weeks and one is almost certain to go to French Open champion Jean-Francois Remesy.

The only players who can deny him are Nick O’Hern, Angel Cabrera, Simon Khan, Miles Tunnicliff, Peter O’Malley, David Lynn and Soren Kjeldsen, but even second-placed O’Hern has to finish third on Sunday to go past Remesy – and that is assuming the Frenchman misses the halfway cut.

Also up for grabs is one Open place to the leading non-exempt player and there is one more of those to be handed out at next week’s Scottish Open.

Colin Montgomerie, relieved to come through a play-off in the qualifying competition at Sunningdale on Monday, now looks to boost his confidence in the time remaining before he tees off on his home course at Troon.

While he may claim to know “every blade of grass” there he does not have the same knowledge of the Smurfit course being used for the first time this week.

The K Club is hosting the event for the 10th time, but all the others have been on what is now known as the Palmer course, the one which will stage the Ryder Cup in two years’ time.

Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Nick Faldo and Lee Westwood are also in the field, while defending champion is Phillip Price.