McGinley resumes quest

With Darren Clarke a week away from making his seasonal debut, and Padraig Harrington a month away from resuming his playing activities, there is a somewhat depleted challenge from Irish representatives to this week's Alfred Dunhill Championship at the Houghton club in Johannesburg, starting on Thursday.

In fact, only three Irish players - two of them European Tour regulars, the other based in South Africa - are included in the field. Paul McGinley, a first round casualty in the world matchplay in Australia two weeks ago, resumes his quest for a Ryder Cup place (he is presently 13th in the qualifying table), while David Higgins, who regained his tour card via the Challenge Tour last season, makes his first competitive outing of the year.

South African-based James Loughnane, who is currently 12th on the Sunshine Tour moneylist, is the other Irish player in a field which has attracted only one category one player, Nick Faldo. The three are also scheduled to play in next week's South African Open, where Clarke is due resume action.

While the Alfred Dunhill tournament, with a top prize of 123,071 euros, is comparatively modest in terms of prize-money, it effectively kick-starts the season for most players (even allowing for the fact that the tour is two tournaments old, going back to the pre-Christmas Johnnie Walker Classic and the world matchplay).

Indeed, Ken Schofield, the executive director of the European Tour, yesterday described this season as a "significant milestone" in the tour's history, given it has "grown and matured beyond all recognition" since the inaugural season in 1972.

That year, in 24 tournaments, players competed for a total prize-money equivalent to 518,770 euros; contrast that with last season's record prizefund which had jumped to 85 million euros. This year's total prize-money has yet to be finalised, but it will again be a record amount. For instance, the Dubai Desert Classic in March has increased its purse by over 200,000 euros (to almost 2 million euros) - and also splashed out undisclosed appearance fees for Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara, as well as securing last year's top two in Europe in Lee Westwood and Clarke.

The European Tour is based in South Africa for the next two weeks, then bases itself in Australia for two co-sanctioned events with the Australasian Tour and, after that, two co-sanctioned tournaments with the Asian Tour in Malaysia and Singapore before hitting Dubai.

Although there has been a haemorrhage of some players to the US (Per-Ulrik Johannson, Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Jimenez have decided to play more frequently in the States this year), Schofield insisted that playing more tournaments in the Southern Hemisphere represented "orderly progress" and is something that will continue.