Like a lot of press releases it's all a bit mind blowing when the idea of it should be to be as clear as possible - people have been talking about some sort of merger/takeover for years and the European Tour is obviously struggling with $1m purses and a year that nobody could have predicted. Hopefully it will be the end of players having to play a certain amount of tournaments ahead of a Ryder Cup and the European Tour will be beamed around the world a lot more. The ET have taken more tournaments under their wing since coming back and the players only know a schedule up to January so hopefully things can proceed with a bit more confidence now.
It's strange to think that it was only this year that we were talking about the Premier Golf League so maybe it's also a proper stance against that?
Time will tell but really hope it gives the ET a proper boost.. people will no doubt talk about it becoming a feeder tour but it sort of already is anyway.
Not a chance that would happen - it’s the one main thing protecting the tour a touch , that and introducing higher prize funds
The European Tour will always be a feeder tour as such and the top players will jump to the US Tour as soon as they can - we will need to ensure there are some ways that we can find ways to keep the top players coming back for a few tournaments at least
Maybe though the Rolex events were meant to do that and that hasn’t really happened though maybe they will again in RC years - don’t think you can gain RC points in Rolex weeks elsewhere?
Good for ranking points but given how much some of these take in appearance money would rather they didn’t bother or maybe that’s just a bit idyllic..
Even the really mediocre PGA Tour events have 6.6m prize money which is nuts
World Ranking points (1 list for RC) are based on the quality of the field in world ranking terms.
The Celtic Opens are nowhere near on a par with the Players.....it’s a bit like suggesting Rangers and Celtic could compete in the Premier League!!
Hopefully by gaining a stake in ETP who bring the coverage in Europe it may mean better feeds from the US and so less ad breaks. Doubt it though. I hope the ET don't sell themselves cheap and let the PGA run roughshod over everything they've built up in the last few decades and that it can be a positive thing in terms of allowing players to compete for better purses and more evenly ranked world ranking points