No rest for reluctant traveller

All along, Paul McGinley wanted to be anywhere rather than in Munich when the last pieces of the European Ryder Cup jigsaw were scheduled to fall into place. Circumstances decree, however, he must - if only for his own peace of mind - play in this week's BMW International, over the Nord-Eichenried course, where the 10 automatic places will be decided.

Although it would take something quite freakish to deprive him of a Ryder Cup debut at the Belfry next month, McGinley simply can't afford to take the risk, even if it would require an unlikely sequence of events to occur in Munich for him to slip from his current eighth position out of the automatic qualifying places.

McGinley would need to miss the cut (and, remember, he has missed just one cut in over 12 months, at the Smurfit European Open at The K Club last month) and then the four players immediately behind him would have to produce the following scenario: either Ian Poulter or Miguel Angel Jimenez win the tournament, with Phillip Price runner-up and Bernhard Langer making the cut.

There are €300,000 (equivalent to Ryder Cup qualifying points) on offer to the winner of the BMW.

As things stand, Poulter is 224,206 points behind McGinley, while Jimenez is 284,153 points behind. Both of these players would need a win to overtake McGinley, as the runners-up prize of €200,000 would be insufficient to overtake the Irishman.

It would appear that Price, on the bubble in 10th position, represents more of a target not just for Poulter and Jimenez, but also for many other players further down the qualifying table.

In theory, in fact, it is feasible - but unlikely - that someone as low as Dean Robertson, who currently occupies 23rd place in the table, could still manage to make the team.

But the closest point of danger to McGinley's presence in the team is 12th placed Jimenez and then only with that unlikely sequence that would also see Price finish second on his own. Even a win for 13th placed Andrew Oldcorn would not be enough to overtake McGinley.

So, a qualifying road that started out in the European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland a year ago has come full circle with the final 1.8 million points on offer in Munich . . . and McGinley heads there like a man who knows he has a Lotto ticket but won't feel safe until he has handed it in to be authenticated.

Langer is in a very similar position to McGinley, knowing only that a win for either Poulter or Jimenez and a runners-up finish by Price would deprive him of a place in the team. As such, he has headed to Germany with a degree of confidence that he will return to the team after being overlooked for a captain's pick by Mark James two years ago when Andrew Coltart got the call instead.

While McGinley travels to Munich with his Ryder Cup fate very much in his own hands, David Higgins will be seeking to extend his recent sequence of making cuts as he attempts to tie down his tour card for next season without having to return to the qualifying school. The other Irish players in the field are Padraig Harrington, whose only competitive outing after this event before he plays at the Belfry will be the AmEx world strokeplay in St Louis, and Des Smyth.