Willett in urgent need of success among Euro stars

World No 6 and former US PGA champion Martin Kaymer tops the bill alongside the likes of Padraig Harrington, John Daly and Colin Montgomerie, while a quartet of Yorkshiremen all have varying degrees of need to capture the top prize.

Simon Dyson has climbed to No 28 in the world on the strength of two victories since finishing ninth at the Open, and he can virtually seal a second top-10 finish on the Race to Dubai with a third win of the year.

The 33-year-old from Malton comes into the tournament as the second-highest ranked player in the field.

An erratic spell of form from Richard Finch, which has seen him finish second and 23rd amid a run of three missed cuts in five tournaments, has left the Hull golfer clinging to a place inside the top 60 on the money list. After twice missing out on a place at the lucrative season finale in Dubai in December, he is desperate to earn a couple of extra big pay days to book his spot.

Harrogate’s John Parry is as low as 117th on the standings after making just one cut in four tournaments. That was in Madrid last week, when the second-year Tour member found something about his approach play he hopes will serve him well in Vilamoura.

Parry, 24, said: “As I suspected during the Madrid Masters, the lie of all three of my wedges was a bit too flat and I have had them adjusted. And wedge play this week could be important.”

The big worry for the White Rose’s leading golfers is Danny Willett, who is 95th on the Race to Dubai and the continuation of a poor season would lead to him losing his Tour status.

Without the comfort blanket of a two-year exemption that Parry earned with his breakthrough win in France last season, Willett is in deperate need of strong results in the closing two months to finish inside the top 115.

After earning 15 top-10 finishes in an opening two years full of promise, the 24-year-old from Sheffield has registered only one this year.

He has missed the cut 11 times, including on his Open debut at Sandwich, and sits just £41,000 above the parapet. Encouraging form at the Alfred Dunhill Links a fortnight ago, when he finished 27th and felt he was ‘rolling the ball better’ on the greens, was followed by another failure to qualify for the weekend in Madrid last time out; a sequence that sums up his season.