It did not create much of a ripple when the PGA Tour announced a few weeks back that it was starting a sanctioned, branded tour in China.
It was just the latest dash of foreign flavour for the American circuit, which already runs secondary and tertiary tours in Latin America and Canada, plus the developmental Web.com Tour in the United States.
Lately, the European Tour has become a feeder circuit, too.
Over the past three weeks, when France’s Victor Dubuisson and Wales’s Jamie Donaldson each finished second at World Golf Championships events, both secured US tour status, effective through 2015.
Dubuisson called the opportunity to play on the PGA Tour a “dream”.
Au revoir. There goes another one.
Three years ago, when stars like Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy eschewed PGA Tour membership, the European Tour had so many top players as exclusive members, its events often matched or surpassed the PGA Tour in weekly firepower.
That is a distant memory.
Donaldson, who finished in a tie for second last weekend in Florida, is expected to follow. If he does, 35 of the top 36 in the world rankings will be PGA Tour members.
The migration is not just about money or better individual sponsorship options, though both are powerful inducements for players on the rise.
Dubuisson won US$906,000 (Dh3.3m) by finishing second at the Accenture Match Play, which represents more cash than the winners of the European Tour’s South African Open, Hong Kong, Nelson Mandela and Africa Open events took home, combined.
Worse, the European Tour often takes a double knock. For instance, when the former Ryder Cuppers Robert Karlsson, Ross Fisher and Nicolas Colsaerts secured US membership, multiple European events lost their world-ranking impact while they mostly played overseas.
Fewer top players translates to lower ranking points on offer. Fans notice the dwindling star power, as do title sponsors. A year or two later, when players like Fisher, Karlsson or Colsaerts return to play in Europe after failing to make a US impact, their world rankings have dropped and their presence doesn’t much help Europe’s marquee value.
Thus, the European Tour gets hurt coming and going. The world No 29 Thomas Bjorn, chairman of the European Tour players committee, is the highest-ranked player who has yet to defect.
“We can still have a tour that works, even though we have a tour in America that is bigger and stronger,” Bjorn told the BBC. “We have just got to realise that this is the case and the European Tour might never be as strong as the PGA Tour.”
And he said that shortly before Dubuisson and Donaldson secured PGA Tour membership.
selling@thenational.ae
Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
