A REJUVENATED Brad-ley Dredge will cross swords with seven Ryder Cup heroes this week, as he bids to win the Daily Telegraph Dunlop Masters at the world famous Forest of Arden club.

After a sensational return to form last week when he finished second at the Italian Open in Milan, the number one European Tour putter from Blackwood is relishing the opportunity to be extremely competitive within a top-class field.

Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Paul McGinley and David Howell will all be biding to claim the top prize, something Clarke did in 2000 and 2002 on the same course. The Dunlop Masters is the first tournament of the season to be played on English soil and as such a multitude of big-names are battling to secure the £283,330 winners' purse.

But Dredge is content to concentrate on his own game, which he believes is as good as it has been since his purple-patch in 2003 when he captured the Madeira Island Open.

He explained: "I putted well all week in Italy and that was extremely pleasing.

"I kept myself in contention to win the event throughout the tournament and never lost my way, despite the fact that my long-game still isn't quite there.

"I am striving just to continue as I am with my game. It is still early days on the tour and if I can keep going with my short game I should stay in some good form."

Dredge will face much stronger competition not only this week, but for the next month, as the European Tour really gets serious in the lead up to the second major of the year, the US Open.

After the Forest of Arden, the tour moves to Ireland for the Irish Open, on the Colin Montgomerie designed Carton House Golf Club course.

The following week it's the massive BMW Championship at Wentworth, famously won last-year by relative unknown Scott Drummond, and the following week the tour returns to Gwent for the Wales Open.

All four tournaments are set to be electric for the supporters, according to Montgomerie.

He told the Argus: "This is the time of year it gets serious. These are four huge events and they are all on home soil, which means cars and not planes, excited home-support and hopefully nice weather - it should be fantastic."

Dredge tees off at 13.20 tomorrow alongside Brett Rumford and his close friend, Monmouth's David Park.