By Brian Keogh

Paul McGinley hopes he get his nose in front in Madrid next week despite a bout of hayfever that has wrecked his build up.

The Dubliner will tee it up in the Spanish Open after a three week break, determined to claw his way back up the world rankings.

And he is keeping his fingers crossed that the hayfever medication he is taking will pay off with a top finish.

He sniffed: "I have been severely affected again by another serious bout of hay fever and it has knocked my training and practicing schedule back a bit.

"I suffered the same problem last year playing in the TCP and the Masters last year and thought I had resolved the problem through different medication.

"But that has not been the case and I really have been knocked for six this last month.

"The problem will resolve itself from the middle of May onwards but, in the meantime, I have tried different medication again and hope that I have now got to the bottom of it."

Ranked 105th in the world from a high of 18th just 18 months ago, McGinley is desperate to bounce back quickly.

He said: "Due to the fact that I have fallen out of the top 50 scheduling and playing tournaments has become a lot more difficult.

"It's hard to play in a run of tournaments that I wanted to play and it felt like every time I needed to play there was no tournament on!

"The solution to that is being back in the top 50 and being into a situation where I can pick and choose again the best tournaments for me.

"From next week I now get to play exactly where and when I want to play, it was just the first four months that seem to cause the problem due to large scale travelling and jet lag."