Pelley said: “The change to our minimum tournament requirement for the 2016 season recognises that many of our members are global players who, at the same time, wish to remain loyal to the European Tour”.
Advertisement
“This resort, these golf courses, this place, the way the tournament has been run the last five years, I think it sells itself, so I think you could have it really nearly in any slot in the six or seven weeks (of the fall schedule on the PGA Tour), and we’d come out with basically the same field, so I’m not concerned about that”. And so with that, the tour forces Europeans to become official members of the European Tour in order to be eligible to make the team.
Over the years, major champions such as Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton Sean Micheel and Rich Beem have toyed with European Tour membership along with the PGA Tour.
For each event that conflicts with a PGA Tour event, he must get a release to play on the European Tour, including this week opposite the RSM Classic – or a total of four.
DP World Tour Championship was in august company of only four events that got the five-star honour – the others being Dubai World Cup, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship and the Dubai Tour.
“Crown Isle is thrilled to be chosen as the host course for the Mackenzie Tour’s Canadian Qualifier for the next five years”, said director of golf Rod Prieto. “He has obviously played well, well beyond his necessary requirements this year”. He’s added approximately another $1.2-million in the European Tour events.
“The announcement marks a significant next chapter as we move into perhaps the most exciting time in the history of this event”, said Mike Brown, Nedbank CE.
David Brown, CEO of the Jacksonville-based Web.com Tour, said he particularly enjoyed Kizzire’s accomplishments since he watched him play in the same junior and college golf tournaments as his son Tyler Brown, who helped Nease win state titles in 2000 and 2001, then played for North Florida and Florida. We need to provide a viable alternative to the PGA Tour for our elite, medium and low-ranked players. Players outside the top 50, like McDowell, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, have no automatic access to such events.
A victory for common sense, and the European Tour should be applauded for it. They would be struggling to play the previously stipulated 13 tournaments if they are ineligible for the majors and WGCs. “Whether that means that a few of the American players will decide to come over and play in the European Tour, if they are world-class players, then by all means, we want the best players playing in our tournaments”.
“I’ve had a chance to talk to a number of players at all levels and one of the things that keeps coming up and we are going to address it, is slow play”.
Advertisement
“We are going to take a leadership role in actually working very closely with the R&A in dealing with this problem”.
