Monty aiming for Augusta

European Tour: Colin Montgomerie's bid to play in next month's US Masters has taken him to the Far East where he hopes a successful defence of his TCL Classic title will provide the necessary boost to qualify for the first major of the year.

The Scot is currently 54th in the world and he needs to be in the top 50 by March 28th if he is to play at Augusta.

Second place at the Yalong Bay Golf Club in the city of Sanya in the Chinese province of Hainan Island would be enough to lift him into the top 50 and gain him entry into next week's Players' Championship, dubbed the fifth major, in America.

With the cut-off for Masters qualification falling immediately after that event, he would then be more certain than not to be in the field for Augusta.

Montgomerie won the inaugural TCL Classic in 2002 when the event, staged solely by the Asian Tour, was held in Shenzhen, southern China. Having skipped a year, the tournament is now a co-sanctioned event with the European Tour and the Scot is looking forward to defending his title against a strong field which includes his victorious Ryder Cup team-mates Paul McGinley and Paul Casey, the 2006 European captain Ian Woosnam and Denmark's Thomas Bjorn.

Another Ryder Cup hero, Philip Walton, returns to action for his second tournament of the year after playing in South Africa at the end of January.

Stephen Browne is the only other Irishman in the field.

Meanwhile, Ireland's leading two European Challenge Tour players, David Higgins and Michael Hoey, have added their voices to the bid to bring the Challenge Tour to Ireland this summer. Higgins and Hoey have made outstanding starts to the season and respectively lie in fifth and sixth places on the rankings after opening the season in some style in Latin America.

"It would be fantastic to see the Challenge Tour in Ireland," Higgins said. "I think it's a great idea to try and get an event up and running at home because you can tell it would be a success. You are guaranteed good crowds in Ireland, and I think, with the Ryder Cup coming next year, golf at home is as popular as it has ever been."