Els detour in warm-up for The Open

ERNIE Els has had a late change of mind about his countdown to The Open at St Andrews and will now play next week's Barclays Scottish Open.

Missing the cut in Germany last Friday prompted a rethink by the world number six and although entries had closed for Loch Lomond there was scope for him to be given a sponsor's invitation.

Winner of the event in 2000 and 2003, Els joins a field featuring three of golf's four current major champions in Graeme McDowell (US Open), Phil Mickelson (Masters) and YE Yang (US PGA).

For McDowell, it will be his first tournament since his triumph at Pebble Beach, but he and defending champion Martin Kaymer are the only Europeans in the world's top 30 taking part.

Third-ranked Lee Westwood last week joined Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson in deciding they did not want to use the event as their warm-up for the following week's major at St Andrew's.

Many of them are at this week's French Open and then travel on to Ireland for the JP McManus Pro-am at Adare Manor on Monday and Tuesday. Tiger Woods will also be in action there.