After shooting 63 last week in Italy and at last being able to build on some form this year, Paul McGinley made an 11th-hour decision to feature in this week's Turespana Masters, Balearic Open at Majorca, which starts today.

A telephone call to the sponsors and tournament promoter Severiano Ballesteros, gained McGinley an invitation and he tees off with Spain's Miguel Martin in the first round.

It should have been a rest week for him as he gears up to play the first big event in the British Isles, next week - the Benson and Hedges International - but McGinley thought better of just hitting balls at home.

That could prove a good decision because McGinley does not have much to beat this week when the weakest field of the season lines up at the Santa Ponsa I course, last used for a tour event in 1993.

McGinley could remember so little of the layout that he admitted to making a number of mistakes in the pro-am yesterday, but he was, nonetheless glad to have the sun on his back in Majorca.

Said the K Club-attached professional: "I had a change of heart and came here for two reasons after asking for an invitation on Monday. First I've only played seven times in five and a half months since the World Cup last year. And I've not been very competitive, largely through injury. Secondly, I shot 63 in Italy and felt I found a little bit of form last week, for the first time this season. I decided it was far better trying to be competitive than just practising back home in Sunningdale."

There is every chance McGinley could lift this title and claim the £58,330 first prize because the hardly in-form Bernhard Langer is the chief attraction next to promoter Ballesteros and after them, McGinley apart, past and potential winners are few and far between. Jose Maria Olazabal won the Turespana Masters last year but it was then the Canaries Open and he does not appear this week, pas sing up a chance of capturing number one on the order of merit after his last two weeks' runnersup placings.

Interest surrounds the players toiling to re-rank themselves higher from tour school this year and that includes Ireland's David Higgins who is trying to make up ground on his absence from play at the start of the year because of his New Year's Eve riding accident. It also includes Francis Howley. Both are here this week knowing the rerank is made next week and they seek elevation into the top 20 to gain more starts for the middle of the year.

The weakness of the field is highlighted by only a handful of players from the top 25 of the current European standings, Alex Cejka of Germany the best at 13th.

Philip Walton would have pulled out with a chest infection except he knew that would only put the besieged tournament organisers, who have had to recruit a whole list of players from out of last year's tour school top 43 to boost the field, in further disarray, so the Malahide-man decided to soldier on.

Raymond Burns, who felt he could at last have turned the corner with his terrible form on the greens after a putting lesson from Walton last week, makes up the Irish field.

Stephen Hamill, one of the players who could have played from outside the top 43 at tour school, had to withdraw because his wife is expecting their child at any moment.

Nick Faldo has severed his links with the company whose clubs he used to win all six of his major championship titles. Faldo, 40, whose form on the US Tour has taken an alarming dip of late, had ended his seven-year contract with Japanese company Mizuno and has announced his intention to play instead with clubs manufactured by Texas-based Adams Golf.He has also taken an unspecified shareholding in Adams Golf and has the right to appoint a director to the board and will work with the company on new club designs. The three-time Open and US Masters champion will play with Adams' Tight Lies Fairway Woods and carry his new sponsors' logo on both his bag and cap.He said: "I'm really excited about our future especially after discovering how committed Adams is to high performance equipment." The financial details of Faldo's new contract are not known, although, as he is acquiring a share in the company, his signing-on fee is likely to be lower than the estimated £3 million-a-year he received from Mizuno.