Jimenez will be the headline act for home supporters

After an eight-year gap, the Madrid Open was resurrected on the European Tour in 2001 at the Club de Campo, which has staged the tournament ever since.

At 6,967 yards and a par 71, it's not big but it's beautifully formed with a host of long, challenging par fours and par threes on a hilly layout with plenty of trees, scrub and gorse to force the players to think their way round.

If the wind blows or rain slows up the fairways, that 71 looks an extremely challenging score.

The first hole, a par four of 466 yards, gives a taste of things to come where most players need a pinpoint drive to the dog-leg right and anything from a seven iron to a three wood to get home.

Sorry guys, but it doesn't get much easier after that.

EASIEST HOLE: The uphill, 518-yard fourth is one of three par fives on Club de Campo and last year, according to the Reuters Stats, worked out as the biggest source of birdies - not to mention nine eagles - on the course.

For most amateurs, it will take two blows to reach the top of the hill from the tee but most of the European Tour field can carry the 250 yards needed to leave a relatively straightforward flat approach to a large green.

Gonzalez wins 2003 Madrid Open

A drive and a three iron or less generally does the job for the pros.

Two bunkers guard either side of the green. Last year, it yielded 187 birdies and eight fewer pars. Only 16 bogeys were recorded all week for an overall stroke average of 4.52.

HARDEST HOLE: The first, short ninth and hefty, 466-yard par-four 13th all offer plenty of headaches but the Reuters Stats showed the 12th threatens the biggest migraine of the lot.

It took an average 4.21 strokes to negotiate in 2003 and yielded just 43 birdies with nearly twice as many bogeys.

Another dog-leg, again to the right, it will punish an over-ambitious "tiger-line" drive with a trip into the trees and an overdone drive left will end up in thick scrub.

Fall into the latter, and a hack out short of the green with a mid-iron is generally the only option.

The approach to the putting surface presents its own problems with bunkers guarding both sides.

The green slopes severely from front to back and there's not much room to play with if you overshoot your approach into the scrub behind the putting surface. Twenty double-bogeys were chalked up here in 2003.

With the season's climax, the Volvo Masters at Valderrama, just around the corner, the Madrid Open offers the pros the chance to brush up their game for the bigger prize on offer the following week.

Most of the top guys, though, opt to give this week a miss and its main fascination is often the battle of the nearly men who use it as their last chance to snatch an automatic Tour card for the following year.

Nevertheless, the 2004 version has its fair share of thoroughbreds.

Ryder Cup heroes Miguel Angel Jimenez and Colin Montgomerie lead the way with 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, this year's Volvo PGA winner Scott Drummond and recent Dunhill Links champion Stephen Gallacher also in the running.

Information provided by Reuters Stats