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It allows players like Adam Scott, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, and Ernie Els to only play a handful of regular PGA events. My opinion is that if someone can't play at least 10 events besides the majors and World Golf Championships, then they aren't really supporting the tour. That's not even 1/3 of the events not counting opposite field events.

True enough in a way. But at least it does give some other golfers a chance to build up points & get a foot on the money list. Some of the big players do pick & choose events. I mean when some of them have private jets to run, some of the events are not cost effective as far as prize money is concerned & then other events are must attends. Then of course with many of the UK & Euro tour golfers now attending more & more US events, its not supprising poor attendance at some events, especially when dates clash.

Darren Clarke does have good reason currently to be missing events. So I certainly wouldn't go critisising "The Big D".

Though the Euro tour does certainly need names like Ernie Els & Harrington & maybe even some of the US tour names like Mickleson & VJ to attend a few of the Euro Tour dates.

The players who do take part in the European tour do need to build upmoney points over a year to allow automatic re-enclusion. So maybe a combination of attendance & money list over the year could be used to help increase attendance.

Greetings ...

Major Problems with the World Golf Championships --

There's only 3 of them (excluding unofficial World Cup Team). All 3 are generally played at the same point on the schedule each year, and 2 of them are played at the same location every year.

Not very helpful to other PGA Tour tournaments that hardly (if ever) see the big names play.

The Fed Ex Cup playoff scenario - the same last 3 events (before Tour Championship) each year - will also hurt other tournaments.

The biggest problem with WGC events is the fact that most of the world never sees them .Maybe if the were spread around 'the World ' they would become more popular.

If they played more USPGA events,they would play less elsewhere and it would ruin the other tours, from which they came.

The Colonial and Western Open still attract decent fields. I think events like the Canadian Open and Texas Open are more hampered by their location, schedule,market and the time of year where they played. Some guys are NEVER going to be too fired up about going down to San Antonio in September when the temps can be well above 90 degrees.

The Canadian Open doesn't fit into a lot of pro's travel schedules and it's a event toward the end of the season. If you look at the PGA schedule in the early and late part of the year most of the events are clustered together geographically, i.e. the western and southern swings, then the tour moves to Texas and the deep south, before heading to the midwest and east later in the year.

And probably New Orleans and Houston as well.

Can someone please explain how 3 tournaments can affect 4 PGA tour events as well as "devastating" the Eurpean and Australasian Tours? They only take up 3 weeks per year.

1. To qualify for them , you need to be in top 64, therefore you need to play in high points scoring events ,especially USPGA events. This is why Poulter etc are playing in US , not Europe this week.

2. To travel to USA for one tournament is a waste of time , so players tend to make three week trips ,which with a week rest makes 12 weeks of the year, nearly 1/4.

If all of the top European players would congregate at their own events, they would be getting those "high points" events on their own soil...there must be some other reason they're flocking to the US to play then? Oh, I know...how about nearly doubled prize money! It's not the PGA Tour's fault that they're more successful than the other tours, nor is it their duty to nurture these other tours. If they want to get a piece of the action, they need to pony up the funds to get the high-profile guys to become interested in staying at home again.

I am not as upset as Bridestone at Firestone because it was elite. However, the other two events take away two events from the remaining tour schedule that someone like Tiger or Phil would have chosen to play otherwise.

Which 2 are those? The Greater Dubuque Open and the Seattle Slam? Phil is now on a 2 off, 3 on schedule so I'm sure he could squeeze them in - as could Tiger.

It's a pretty circular situation actually.

The World Ranking system, as it sets up, favours US Tour events as being stronger and therefore worthy of more ranking points. I don't have a massive problem with this because, as things stand, they ARE stronger.

OWGR points translate into Major and WGC invitations. Top and up-and-coming European pros want into these events, so eventually they need to try their luck on the US Tour.

It would take several years of all the top European pros playing only European Tour events to make any change to the OWGR weightings. That ain't gonna happen, is it. And let's face it, the money does talk!

There is a danger of the (U.S) P.G.A Tour imploding if the growth in European tour players and `rest of world players` continue to do well on that tour.

Sponsors, will in turn rather place there money in other sports that attract American sports fans who have a vested interest in the players, rather than watching the likes of Brian Davis, Greg Owen, Ian Poulter, Luke Donald etc competing!

I still feel that within the next 25 years, there will definitely be a restriction on the number of non-American players playing on the (U.S.) P.G.A Tour ...unless the number of American `young-guns` making the top 125 grade isn`t reversed!!!

Probably a West Coast event like Pebble Beach or Tucson and maybe a fall event like Las Vegas or Greensboro or Canada. Possibly Houston or New Orleans. It might force Retief, Ernie, Tiger, and maybe Phil to look at some of the other events to meet their schedule and they would probably rotate among these events.

If the World Golf Events are in the U.S., they should rotate these events among different PGA tour stops, especially those that don't have Tiger, Ernie, Phil, and Retief.