McGinley faces Catch 22 dilemma

GOLF: The axe, when it fell, was blunt. For most, the qualifying criteria to play in the $5 million American Express World Championship at Mount Juliet next week finished yesterday when the top 50 available players from the official world rankings and the leading 30 money winners on this year's US Tour were given their tickets.

But, while the majority of the field is finalised, a few lose ends remain to be tied up.

The anomaly arises because one of the qualifying criteria is that the top 20 players from the current European Tour moneylist are also entitled to a place in the field - and this won't be finalised until after this week's German Masters, which has been given an enhanced status on the European Tour. Apart from the €500,000 top prize, which could be enough for players as low as 80th in the current moneylist to leapfrog into a place in the AmEx field, there will also be a new, five-year exemption on tour for the winner.

As things stand, however, no fewer than seven Ryder Cup players - five Europeans and two Americans - have failed to meet the criteria set out in qualifying for the season's third World Golf Championship event. And one of them is Paul McGinley.

Ironically, the Dubliner was qualified to play last year in St Louis - and was on hand - only for the tournament to be cancelled because of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

"They didn't make the Ryder Cup players exempt and they didn't do anything for those players who were qualified to play last year but not this year," said McGinley, adding: "So it is a closed shop, it's not going to change now. That's the way of the world."

In fact, the only way McGinley can force his way into the Mount Juliet field would be to either win or finish second in Germany.

"I'd love to play, but the only way I can do that is to win in Germany, and yet, if that was to happen, I still don't know whether I would play (in Mount Juliet). My mind is not on it (the American Express), to be honest. I want to play, but the Ryder Cup has taken precedence. If I'd qualified for the American Express through the top 50, I probably wouldn't play in Germany this week. However, since I am not in the field for Mount Juliet, I have to play in Germany to be right for the Ryder Cup."

It may seem like a Catch 22, but, after enduring a disappointing summer, McGinley feels his game is coming back and a few days spent with coach Bob Torrance in Scotland last week has helped to improve his confidence about the match at The Belfry.

Yesterday's official world rankings was the principal route to qualifying for most players for the American Express, with the top 50 players in the table earning a place in the field. Using that criteria, the Ryder Cup men who failed to make it were Jesper Parnevik (57th), McGinley (67th), Pierre Fulke (93rd), Phillip Price (114th) and Lee Westwood (133rd), from Europe, and Stewart Cink (54th) and Hal Sutton (115th) of the United States.

Of the septet to miss out by the top 50 route, the unluckiest was Cink. He had occupied the 50th automatic qualifying place a week ago, and played in the Canadian Open in an attempt to cement his place. (Ironically, the winner there, John Rollins, jumped into the top 30 in the US moneylist to book his place in the field.)

However, Cink didn't perform well enough to hold on and was actually passed by four players in the rankings.

He would need four players to cry off to earn a spot as a replacement. As of last night, only Japan's Toshi Izawa, the world's number 41, had told championship organisers of his unavailability, and that place was being offered to John Cook.

A number of players have included the German Masters in their itinerary in an attempt to earn a late place in the field for Mount Juliet. Nick Faldo, for one, is 21st in the European moneylist and only needs to improve one place to earn a return to a venue where he won a third Irish Open in succession, while McGinley and even Graeme McDowell, who has played for the past three weeks in North America, could also earn the right to play by either winning or finishing second in Germany and jumping into the top 20.

McGinley and McDowell are part of a six-strong Irish challenge in the German Masters at Gut Larchenhof, near Cologne.

Padraig Harrington, who received a boost when informed that the scan on his ankle injury which has troubled him for almost a month revealed nothing more serious than inflamed ligaments, is among those travelling.

"I've been working with my coach, Bob Torrance, over the last few days and everything seems fine. I will be trying to find some good form over the next two weeks to bring into the Ryder Cup . . . to be honest I can't wait," he said.

Des Smyth, Ronan Rafferty and David Higgins are also entered to play.

Harrington has also been included in the field for next month's Cisco World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth. The Dubliner was beaten in last year's final by Ian Woosnam, who defends his crown on October 17th-20th. British Open champion Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Justin Rose, Mike Weir, Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Michael Campbell have also been confirmed. The 12th player to complete the line-up is due to be announced shortly.

Meanwhile, Peter Lawrie's top-10 finish at Formby Hall in England last weekend strengthened his 11th place position on the European Challenge Tour, and he is part of a four-man Irish invasion force to play in this week's Telia Grand Prix in Sweden.

Gary Murphy, Paddy Gribben and Damien McGrane, who finished second in England to move up to 22nd on the Challenge Tour moneylist, are also playing. The top 15 on the Challenge Tour order of merit get their full tour cards for next season.