McGinley eyes team spot

Paul McGinley has turned down a few dead certs at Cheltenham in favour of a gamble on himself in the Madeira Island Open.

The 33-year-old Dubliner expected to be enjoying a well-earned rest this week and had tickets to join thousands of his fellow Irishmen at the Cheltenham Festival.

But a blistering run of form - with three top 10s in his last three events - persuaded McGinley to add Madeira to his schedule in a last-ditch attempt to qualify for the Seve Ballesteros Trophy at Sunningdale.

"I haven't played here for five years and only added it to my schedule two weeks ago," said McGinley, who is fighting for the last automatic place in Colin Montgomerie's 10-man Britain and Ireland team.

"I'm right in line for the team and I'm not going to the next two events in Brazil so I need to give myself an opportunity to win as much money as I can.

"I'd dearly love to play in the match at Sunningdale. I need to be the top player in the Order of Merit by April 9th but at the moment Phil Price is £20,000 ahead of me so I need a very big finish this week."

"I had planned on going to Cheltenham this week. I've had to give away tickets I had and my caddy is very, very disappointed but maybe it will save me money by not going!"

McGinley, who lives in Sunningdale and is a close neighbour of Darren Clarke, will start as favourite for the £56,000 first prize after a superb start to 2000.

He has already won £144,000 with a third place finish in Portugal, tied second in Dubai and joint seventh in Qatar last week taking him to seventh on the Order of Merit.

Meanwhile, Ballesteros himself is making his first visit to Madeira but holds out little hope of a first victory since 1995. "I'm not playing very well, I don't have confidence in my game," said the 42-year-old Spaniard who has slumped to well outside the top 200 in the world.