Major boost for McGinley

Paul McGinley is about to join the elite group of Irishmen to have played in three of the world's four major championships. The 33-year-old Dubliner is to make his debut in the USPGA Championship at Valhalla, Kentucky, from August 17th to 20th.

Now his hope is that he will qualify for the WGC-NEC Invitational at Firestone a week later, when a limited field will be competing for prize money of $5 million. The European candidates will be finalised after the British Masters at Woburn next week.

"I must admit that I more or less expected to get a USPGA invite," said McGinley yesterday. "In the past, they have gone considerably further down the world rankings than 50th, and I was 73rd after finishing 20th in the British Open at St Andrews."

McGinley has played eight times in the British Open and has a highest finish of tied 14th at Royal Lytham in 1996. A year later, he made his US Open debut at Congressional where he failed to make the cut. He has yet to play in the US Masters.

Through a decidedly curious qualification system for the NEC, Ryder Cup partners Jesper Parnevik and Sergio Garcia will not be in the field. This is because world ranking positions were ignored in favour of taking the top-12 from the European Order of Merit after Woburn.

McGinley is currently 14th in the Order of Merit and will not be playing in this week's Scandinavian Masters at Kungsangen, Stockholm, where Darren Clarke will head the Irish challenge. So, he will need a high finish in the British Masters to be sure of qualification.

Clarke is not playing at Woburn. Instead, he will head to the US a week on Friday. After a company day at Salem GC in Boston on the Saturday, he and Lee Westwood will play Pine Valley on the Sunday as part of their American acclimatisation. They expect to be in Louisville for the USPGA Championship on the Monday evening of tournament week.

Meanwhile, David Higgins faces a busy schedule for the remainder of the year, now that he has regained his European Tour card. Apart from aiming for the top money winner's position on the Challenge Tour, he will probably make at least three appearances on the regular tour.

The first of these will be in the North-West of Ireland Open at Slieve Russell on August 17th to 20th. His management group, ISM, then expect him to play in the Scottish PGA Championship at Gleneagles the following week and there is the prospect of an invitation to the Canon European Masters in Switzerland on September 7th to 10th.

Further Challenge Tour activity beckons, however, in this week's BMW Russian Open in Moscow, followed by the Finnish Masters. And as an end of season treat, he will play in the Cuba Challenge Tour Grand Final at the Varadero GC on November 2nd to 5th, after which he will head directly the US and winter practice.

"I'm learning all the time, managing myself better and practising better," said the Waterville player, who is looking forward to a return to regular tour action next year. "I've been through it before but will be better prepared this time."

Tiger Woods will play in the Dubai Desert Classic for the first time next March.

Organisers announced the coup yesterday in a bid to put the tournament on the world golf map.