The field of 72 players will be made up of 64 players from the Race to Dubai, the previous year’s NGC champion, the victor of the Sunshine Tour’s Order of Merit the previous season as well as six tournament invitations drawn from the official world rankings.
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“This is another major milestone in our very strong relationship with the European Tour and once again positions the Nedbank Golf Challenge and the Sunshine Tour at the forefront of world golf”, said Selwyn Nathan, Executive Director of the Sunshine Tour.
“I love where he’s thinking”.
Because you’re new to the scene you probably won’t be able to get into the four majors or the WGC events, which means you’d need to play 13 events on the European Tour alone just to maintain eligibility for the Ryder Cup.
Pelley noted his organization had to offer the same financial incentives as its U.S. counterpart if it hoped to feature young golfers, who tend to make their bones in Europe and then take their promising games across the Atlantic.
He said to me if that’s our flagship event, that’s a bit embarrassing for the European Tour.
It will now be contested in the second week of November, just a week ahead of DP World Tour Championship.
“If that change hadn’t come into effect I would have struggled to get my number of events – now my schedule will be very similar”, said Donald, who also plays on the U.S. PGA Tour.
Referring to the upcoming renovation of Wentworth’s west course, Pelley added: “We are continuing onto Wentworth until at least 2018 and expect if the west course becomes exactly what they believe it, and that we can increase the prize purse, then perhaps it can be a flagship event going forward”. We are trying to provide a great option for them.
“Right now that doesn’t exist because our prize purses aren’t high enough, so we are going to have to significantly increase them over the coming years”.
If the European Tour is fragile, why would the PGA Tour want to buy it?
A victory for common sense, and the European Tour should be applauded for it.
The latter change replaces the previous requirement for non-European members to play one of more events in their home “region”, and recognises the importance to The European Tour’s promoters, sponsors and broadcasters of players playing in their national tournaments, at the same time as recognising the global nature of the Tour and its membership alongside the need for equality in the membership regulations. Previously, the minimum was 13 including these elite tournaments.
“It’s the status quo except for those who have dropped out of the top 50”, Pelley said.
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“This change will benefit them and enable them to continue to remain in membership with us in what are extremely exciting times for The European Tour”.
