Euro Tour Raises Minimum Tournaments Requirement to 12

Why is this important? Until now, the European Tour required golfers to play in only 11 tour events to maintain membership.

There've been quite a few headlines over the past few days about this USPGA golfer or that one considering joining the European Tour. In some ways, this has been much ado about nothing. Contrary to the implications in some of those headlines, Vijay Singh or Phil Mickelson (to use two examples) would not have to leave the USPGA in order to join the European Tour (Singh, in fact, is already a Euro Tour member).

That's because the Euro Tour has always required 11 tour appearances for membership, and the four majors and three WGC events count as Euro Tour events. So Singh, Mickelson and other top players are already playing seven European Tour events a year. They need only add four more to meet the membership requirements.

Until now. Now that minimum requirement is 12 European Tour events, which means playing five more events in addition to the four majors and three WGCs.

Why would the European Tour's Tournament Committee bump up the minimum requirement at this time? Because the Euro Tour players see USPGA members greedily eyeing that $10 million "Road to Dubai" finish next year, and the Euros want to make sure any USPGA member who wants to chase that money has to earn it. By adding an additional five, rather than four, events.

This might be a good decision, or it might be a bad decision. Or it might be a little of both, depending on how it plays out:

• The bad part: Increasing the minimum, even only by one tournament, could be enough to keep someone like Mickelson - or Tiger Woods - from joining the European Tour. That's good for Euro Tour members who want that money all to themselves; it's bad for the Tour as a whole. Having Vijay and Phil and maybe even Tiger playing an extra few times a year on your tour? That's good stuff. Having them all show up for the season-ending extravaganza? That's priceless.

• The good part: On other other hand, perhaps an increase of one measly tournament won't scare Phil or Tiger away. And then the Euro Tour gets them for five appearances rather than four. Pretty clever. If it works.

So how hard will it be for a USPGA member to sqeeze in those extra five events and get Euro Tour membership? Not difficult at all. There are several places in the European Tour schedule that make sense - and some of these tournaments already draw a contingent of USPGA golfers. For example, some Americans already head to Britain a week early and play the Scottish Open the week prior to the British Open. Aussie USPGA members have the Australian Masters and Johnnie Walker Classic to play in Down Under.

At the beginning of the European Tour season (which starts in November) you have the HSBC Champions in China. The Qatar Masters and Dubai Desert Classic in late January/early February already draw some Americans. And in the fall, after the FedEx Cup series ends, there are the Dunhill Links in Scotland and the Volvo Masters in Spain, two tournaments that could become destinations for USPGA players getting in that 12th event.