Euro Tour's FedEx Cup Counter

The AP did a nice little story reporting on a trend that is beginning to become more widespread in golf: European Tour events offering more world ranking points than their counterpart event on the PGA Tour in any given week. This has happened several times already this year, including the events in the Middle East - particularly in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. (If someone will give me a free trip to Dubai, that would be great.) This week will mark the third straight week where that will happen - all of the Fall Series events have fields that have paled in comparison to their Euro Tour counterparts.

World ranking points do a lot for golfers. If a golfer can manage to get into the top 50, they assure themselves a position in the major championships. So, a player may be motivated to take a trip over to Europe in order to gain some world ranking points and a shot at a prize purse no less than the PGA Tour offers (with the exchange rate being so poor for the dollar).

Euro Tour Chief Executive George O'Grady is considering a move that will place the desert swing at the finale of the Euro Tour season - after the FedEx Cup ends. In essence, the European Tour could have a finale series including the Dunhill Links, World Match Play, and all three desert events. All of those events have huge world ranking points and would attract plenty of players compared to dingy Fall Series events. (This is another reason that the Fall Series events are not happy with the PGA Tour.)

The catch in O'Grady's plan? PGA Tour policy that says a play can only be released from Tour commitments for 3 events for every 15 they play on Tour. Tim Finchem said that he will not release a slew of top players to go over to Europe/Asia Minor to play. But, he may have no choice if enough players become interested in the Euro Tour's proposed finale.

Oh, I love competition!