McGinley makes his point

A seven-under-par 65 in the opening round of the £3.5million BMW PGA Championship was exactly what the 41-year-old Dubliner was looking for in his biggest week of the year so far.

Desperately keen to earn a fourth Ryder Cup cap - he resigned as an assistant to European captain Nick Faldo insisting he wanted to focus solely on his game - McGinley turned in a supreme display of shot-making skills.

He did so on a bouncy West Course that may have suited him, but certainly did not bring the best out of some of the big guns.

Ernie Els, whose redesign of the course was aimed at making it more taxing, and Darren Clarke struggled to 75s, while Justin Rose and Retief Goosen were one worse than that and Lee Westwood could do no better than 77.

Double bogeys on the 15th and 16th even had the Ryder Cup points leader laughing and when asked about his amusement afterwards, Westwood said: "I was seeing the funny side of not being able to hit the hole from three feet."

Swede Robert Karlsson, another of the 2006 heroes trying to force his way into the 2008 side, coped much better and with a 66 is in second place.

Karlsson, whose 61 in Italy two weeks ago equalled the lowest round of the year and who has finished third in his last two events, also kept a bogey off his card, as did Australian Marcus Fraser in his 67.

Three-time champion Colin Montgomerie was three over after three but battled back for a 73, while Paul Casey, winner of the World Match Play on the course two years ago, was three under until he pulled a drive out of bounds and ran up a double-bogey seven at the 17th.

Nick Dougherty double-bogeyed the ninth after hitting an eight-iron into a ditch, but four back-nine birdies meant he signed for a 70, five better than playing partner Els. Thomas Bjorn's continuing neck problems hampered him as he shot 76, while Vijay Singh pulled out before the start with a rib muscle problem.