Sombre start in Spain but good chance for Aiken

There was also a memorial service for Seve Ballesteros at the chapel beside the Pula course where Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie will tee off this afternoon after flying to the event from the funeral for Europe's greatest-ever golfer.

With most of the Tour's stars away in Florida for the Players Championship and both Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy taking the week off, South African Thomas Aiken might never have a better chance to record back-to-back victories.

The South African captured the Spanish Open on Sunday and instantly dedicated the victory to Ballesteros, a man he said "did so much for the game and he will always be remembered".

Frenchman Gregory Bourdy is the only other member of the world's top 100 taking part, while Montgomerie will believe this is a great opportunity for him to record his first top-ten finish for almost three years.

Olazabal is the course designer and his last victory came at the venue six years ago. Darren Clarke, Paul Lawrie and Paul McGinley are also in the field and Nick Dougherty will be trying to make his first cut in ten events this season. The Liverpudlian pulled out of the Spanish Open and instead flew to Florida to seek help from his father after a miserable run which has seen him tumble out of the world's top 500.

Lawrie, in contrast, has returned to winning ways this year after a gap of nine years. That came at the Andalucian Open in March and on his next start he was fifth in Barcelona at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Montgomerie has added his name to the campaign to have the image of Ballesteros on the logo of the European Tour. The logo is currently a silhouette of Harry Vardon - Open champion a record six times between 1896 and 1914 - but the former Ryder Cup captain said: "I think you will find it does change and let's hope it is sooner rather than later.

"When you talk about the European Tour you talk about Seve and I think it's only right he should appear on our logo."