GOLF: Paul McGinley has been given a familiar adversary for his debut in the HSBC World Matchplay championship at Wentworth this week. The 38-year-old Dubliner, who qualified for the event, which has the biggest first prize (£1 million) in golf, through the European Tour money list, will face Denmark's Thomas Bjorn in Thursday's 36-hole first round match.

US Open champion Michael Campbell is the only major winner this season to make himself available, as neither US Masters and British Open champion Tiger Woods nor US PGA champion Phil Mickelson opted to take up their places in the field, and world number two Vijay Singh was also unavailable and holder Ernie Els ruled out by injury. So it was left to world number five Retief Goosen to secure the top seeded place when the draw was finalised yesterday.

The draw was based on the position of the 16 players in the field from the latest world rankings, with McGinley, ranked 36th, seeded 11th, pitched against the world's number 20 Bjorn, the sixth seed, in the first round.

Bjorn, a Ryder Cup colleague of McGinley's at the Belfry in 2002 and a lieutenant to captain Bernhard Langer at Oakland Hills in Detroit last year, when the Irishman was part of the team, reached the world matchplay final two years ago when he lost to Els.

This is new territory for McGinley. "I've played very little golf at Wentworth in the autumn or winter months, when the course is softer. Even though I was a member there for a year, I didn't play a huge amount of golf because of my tournament schedule," said McGinley, who was runner-up to Angel Cabrera in the BMW Championship there in May.

With money from the World Matchplay counting towards both the European Tour money list and to securing points for the 2006 Ryder Cup qualifying campaign, McGinley knows he has a "a great opportunity to go a long way down the road to achieving my main goal, which is obviously that Ryder Cup team."

However, if he should secure a load of Ryder Cup points this week or towards the end of the season, McGinley claims he is unlikely to take up the increasing number of invitations that are arriving for him to play in the United States.

"I won't be exposing myself too much in America. Even though I've got a lot of invitations to play tournaments in the States, I might not do them. Next year is not a good year for doing that . . . my focus is Europe and on making that team. I really want to be on that team in Ireland. I was fortunate to be on the Walker Cup team in '91 and I want to go again.

"The Ryder Cup has been good for me. I've had two great experiences (2002 and 2004) and I really enjoy team sports. I've got the Seve Trophy coming up again next week and maybe the World Cup again with Padraig."

In fact, the cut-off point for determining the teams for the World Cup in Vilamoura on November 17th-20th came after the German Masters, with the two highest ranked players from each country off the world rankings qualifying. Harrington, at 12th, is the highest ranked Irish player. If 17th-ranked Darren Clarke doesn't take his place on the team (and he rarely does), then it will go to McGinley, who has moved above Graeme McDowell in the rankings inside the past month.

Although he is now 38, McGinley believes his best competitive years are ahead of him. "Anything I've done, whether it be football or golf, I've always got better as I've always been a slow learner," he said.

Getting a place in the world matchplay, though, is an indication of McGinley's continued upward graph. Not only is he comfortably placed inside the world's top-50, which has the bonus of securing places in next season's majors, but he is currently seventh on the European Tour money list and in line for his best finish. He was eighth in the Order of Merit in 2001.

The McGinley-Bjorn match is one of three all-European first round matches, with Luke Donald facing Bernhard Langer and Jose-Maria Olazabal meeting David Howell.

Goosen, who has won on tour for the past two weeks, is the pre-championship favourite and top seed and takes on England's Kenneth Ferrie.

Ferrie has been passed over by Britain and Ireland captain Colin Montgomerie for the wild card on to the team for the Seve Trophy match against the Continent of Europe at the Wynyard Club in England's north-east next week. Monty opted instead to select Ryder Cup player Paul Casey, who has shown a return to form in recent weeks, on a team that features three Irish players, Harrington, McGinley and McDowell.

Continental Europe captain Olazabal has selected Thomas Levet as his wild card.

Harrington is the main draw at this week's Irish PGA Championship which takes place at PGA National at Palmerstown House, outside Naas, starting on Thursday.

Harrington defends his title in a field that also features regular tour players Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy and Philip Walton.

EUROPEAN TOUR ORDER OF MERIT

Irish positions (after German Masters)

7th, P McGinley (19) 1,161,083

21st, D Clarke (11)€810,929

43rd, P Lawrie (28) €419,455

47th, G McDowell (15) €389,591

50th, P Harrington (13) €382,945

53rd, D McGrane (27) €372,281

80th, G Murphy (26) €268,517

185th, D Higgins (7) €44,017

193rd, S Browne (20) €36,254

203rd, C Moriarty (4) €30,100

219th, M Hoey (5) 22,252

274th, P Walton (15) €7,453.