2 out of 3 aint bad.

So a lot of golfers are whining about having to play 2 out of the 3 final series events to qualify for the DP World Tour Championship. The European Tour needs to have top quality fields in all of these events to get sponsors. Are the players just being selfish? Or is the tour too demanding on them?

Players are being selfish. They seem to claim that the new rules prevents them from playing two tours and maintaining their sponsor obligations... Well, IMO it's not the ET's obligation to make sure players can play two tours and make an extra kazillion dollars. But if the result is that players diss the ET, the ET may have to adapt. But then that'll be the same as surrendering to the PGA Tour, playing second fiddle for good.

On the other hand Ernie Els skipped the BMW in Shanghai beacuse he was playing CIMB in Malaysia same week. Duh! It's not like you have trouble fulfilling the PGA Tour requirements, so why bother with he CIMB? Now he "strikes".

And Schwartzel's excuse is that he feels comitted to THREE tours!! Duh!

ET cannot get the sponsorship cash it wants and so lets it go cheaper than they would like. Many sponsors cannot commit unless a top field is on display. ET fights it out with PGA and dim Tim and both tours need to go to Asia and Australasia to make cash. Players are greedy and because more cash can be earned in the states our top players go there which upsets some of the hicks over the pond.

If the tours cannot get some form of accord, then I fear that we will see a decline as has happened on the ladies tour. That tour went backwards for so many years because the yank girls didnt want to travel and sponsorship fell away and the asian girls took centre stage. Some heads need banging and it may be that both tours join before long and try and dominate the world game more than it does at the minute.

Doc - Are you looking for some sort of "alliance" between the tours to assure mutual success to all tours?

If so, why?

Professional golfers feed their family on their earnings. Their shelf life (save for the outliers like Greg Norman or Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus) is short. What you may call "greed" I call common sense.

I can't make sense of your comment ... "Players are greedy and because more cash can be earned in the states our top players go there which upsets som of the hicks over the pond." What does that mean?

Somehow I don't think Els, Schwartzel or any of the top names that sponsors want will ever worry about feeding their families. The players maybe as Tiger puts it, "independent contractors", but they still should try and give something back. The players seem to want to only play a handful of events but still want the money in the final event. I think being asked to play two out of three events should not be a problem for professional athletes.

I think that while the detail may be slightly out, the ET is right to do this. Why should they put on a big season ending finale with a massive pot so players who have fulfilled their numbers by playing in majors in the USA and WGC events...in the USA, can rock up and get the spoils.

As said above its not like they haven't known about it since the beginning of the season when they planned their schedules.

Where I do think its wrong is that the HSBC counts and there are players who have been playing on the ET all year and are on the bubble and don't qualify for that so miss out on one of the three events and also its a larger than normal pot where you also get money for last place so allowing others to seriously leap frog them.

I have no problem with players saying that they want to play where they want and when but they cannot have it all ways.

I think the bigger problem for the ET is not the players complaining but the main sponsor of the final event who understandably want maximum publicity for their event and won't be too worried about the ET.

289,
I think you have a very strong point there - that "main sponsor of the final event", Dubai, has reduced the size of their jackpot and thus the incentive for players to go out of their way to participate.

If we accept the Woods edict that the pros are independent contractors (tho it seems he has more to say about the E.T. quandary than his own actions), then Els will have chosen to go his way and accept his fee for playing Macau, likewise Schwartzel with his sidetrip to that China Masters nonsense.

Els and Garcia both chose to play CIMB rather than the BMW tournament and are now trying to have their cake and eat it too (nonsensical cliche though that is).

The bottom line is probably that "Dubai" is no longer the carrot it used to be.

And then there's the always bloviating Montgomerie rabbitting on about playing for $400K back in his day. Why can't he just shut up - the players he's criticising have all achieved more than Montgomerie ever will?

whoa whoa whoa, let's just leave dear Colin out of this, ok? Just cos he's a buffoon does not mean you can just lay into him any time you like, especially when he cannae defend hissel. That man has done more for golf than any other and I cannot in all conscience allow this attack to continue. Oh wait, no he's a prat, carry on...

Re. the WGC discussion and "indenpendent contractor" comments by Tiger as why he skipped the WGC in Shanghai , he stated "But I just think it's important to be fresh, it's important to be ready for the major championships, the World Golf Championships, the Players Championship"... DUH! You mean "the World Golf Championships in the US"!?