Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas have agreed to join the European Tour next season.

Trampas

Sergio Garcia has spoken of his delight at the fact that both Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas have agreed to join the European Tour next season.

Kim and Villegas have now confirmed their intentions to play on both sides of the Atlantic by paying their European Tour joining fees.

Garcia revealed he had played a part in convincing the duo to take up their membership and feels they will prove to be huge assets.

"It's great," said Garcia ahead of the Volvo Masters where he will be looking to add to his triumph at the Castello Masters last week - an event at which Villegas made his European debut.

"I think any time you can get players of the calibre of Camilo and Anthony into the Tour, it's great.

"It's an asset and it's good for golf. It's good for the European Tour and it's nice to see those guys move around a little bit and not only play in the US.

"We'll welcome them with open arms and we hope they can enjoy it as much as we do."

Relaxed

The Spaniard offered the US-based duo an insight into life on the European Tour adding: "They asked me a couple of things and I told them how the Tour is. Everything seems to be a little bit more relaxed in Europe.

"Don't get me wrong, when we go out there we are all trying our hardest and we are all trying to win. But outside of that everything seems to be a bit more relaxed.

"I think it's a little bit looser here. You get along and have dinners and all of those kind of things.

"I think that's probably one of the things that they enjoyed and obviously The Race to Dubai is a big asset too."

Garcia went on to concede that some lower-ranked European players might not share his delight at the prospect of two stars, both in the world's top ten, joining.

Profile

However, he insisted the move was for the good of the profile of the Tour as a whole and would carry benefits in the long term.

"There's no doubt that the more good players you get here, some guys are going to feel it," the 28-year-old continued.

"But it happens everywhere, so you can't have both. If you want the Tour to get better and to grow and get to the level that it deserves, there's no doubt that you need those big players.

"Obviously if you're taking four or five spots there's going to be four or five guys that are going to struggle, but it's the way of life. You can't please everybody unfortunately."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12176_4427357,00.html

Nothing to do with the Race to Dubai now at the €10,000,000 on offer :rolleyes:

I say prize money on a whole will be down next year

PhilipMarlowe

I think it's great to see.... and it's no small coincidence that the two places in the world that have (all) the money are China and the Oil producing Arabs and these places feature heavily already on the European Tour and will do even more-so in the future.

stockdam

Good to see two exciting players. However it means that two others may find they miss out on the cut (assuming these two make every cut). Maybe the increased competition will benefit everyone though and might push the prize money up.

Ok so it's only two guys but maybe more will follow them over.

1916

What does it cost pro's to join Tours i.e. entrance fees etc? Just curious. €10 a competition?...


1916

Trampas

http://www.waggleroom.com/story/2007/11/19/114359/42 says it is €500

The rumors are John Daly and Big Phil will be playing more over on the European Tour next year.

The lads might struggle due to differences in courses unlike what you see in USA.

Then again if they play in majors, wga and the likes they will only need to show there face a few times outside these to keep their card.

Aidric

After the acrimony between Garcia & Kim at the Ryder cup I'm surprised to read of Garcia's "part" in all this. They are both good additions to the tour, money speaks at the end of the day and the big players will come for the big pots.

WHIP IT!

Trampas wrote: »

http://www.waggleroom.com/story/2007/11/19/114359/42 says it is €500

The rumors are John Daly and Big Phil will be playing more over on the European Tour next year.

The lads might struggle due to differences in courses unlike what you see in USA.

Then again if they play in majors, wga and the likes they will only need to show there face a few times outside these to keep their card.

Wasn't Daly arrested for being drunk outside a Hooters recently??

Mind you, if it's drunks you're after - I guess they're 10-a-penny outside Hooters!

ShriekingSheet

WHIP IT! wrote: »

Wasn't Daly arrested for being drunk outside a Hooters recently??

Wasn't the simpsons on sky one recently?

Blunder

Think its good for the tour. A lot of people have been complaining about the quality of fields in a lot of the tournaments this last few years so It'll be good to see some of the best players playing in these tournaments. I thought it had already been announced that the prize money was increasing for the new season. I still dont think that we'll see any of them over in western europe though.

PhilipMarlowe

Mickleson won't be joining this year anyway...

http://www.rte.ie/sport/golf/2008/1111/mickelsonp.html

Phil Mickelson confirmed he will not be participating in the Road To Dubai this season but insisted he would be 'honoured' to be involved in the European Tour in the future.

Speaking in Singapore on Tuesday, the American said that his schedule for 2009 did not allow him to commit to the European Tour at this time but the Race to Dubai fitted in well with his future plans.

'I have thought about it (European Tour membership) but I did not take it up for '09. If I did, it would have been before last week's event (the HSBC Champions),' said the 38-year-old.

'It wasn't quite right for me time-wise but I have still made a commitment to play more golf internationally and I do believe that it's very possible that in the near future, that will be in my plans.

'As I play more throughout the world it would be a natural fit to be a part of the Race to Dubai.'

The three-time major winner was wholesome in his praise for the European Tour and indicated that he would be more than happy to be part of it.

'I think that the European Tour is making great strides in their individual events. There is a high quality to the events as well as the Tour as a whole. They've been able to maintain a number of their top players and have a great product to present.

'It would be an honour for me to be a part of it. It just didn't work out for me this year but I wouldn't rule it out for the near future.

'I haven't set a time schedule - I thought that I might do it for '09 but it's just the way that some little things worked out, it wasn't quite right yet.

'But again, I'm not going to commit to doing it in 2010 because I don't know what's going to happen over the course next 14 months.

'But if a couple of things happen here or there, it would help to make it all fit.'

Mickelson lost his world number two ranking to Sergio Garcia after finishing tied for eighth in Shanghai but although the American is eyeing a good performance at this week's Barclays Singapore Open, he is not too concerned at being seen as the world's best golfer after Tiger Woods.

'It's not really something that I really think about,' said Mickelson of the world ranking.

'What I'm more concerned about is playing well here. Last year I came here to Singapore with high expectations because I was playing well and wanted to perform well at this event.

'It's important for me to play well and that for me is the motivating factor.

'The world rankings will fluctuate and that's not something I've spent much time thinking about. I think that if I play well, the world ranking, the money list and all those other things will take care of itself.'

The gap between Woods and the rest has narrowed since the world number one underwent knee surgery in the summer but Mickelson is looking forward to his return from injury in the new year.

'The reason why we all want Tiger back is because he drives the game of golf,' Mickelson said.

'He drives television ratings, the sponsors need him in their events and the fans turn out to see him, so we need him back as soon as possible.

'He does so much for us on a national level in the United States and on an international level throughout the world, and we all miss him and want him back soon.'

SalthillGuy

The current crop of 'great American players' will never be considered great unless they travel and win around the world.
Phil M has never travelled, apart from the open.
The US guys are too comfortable playing target golf in the sun. It's a far cry from playing St Andrews on a cold windy day.
I think the young guys will travel more, plus there will be more emphasis on a world tour at some point.

ShriekingSheet

SalthillGuy wrote: »

The current crop of 'great American players' will never be considered great unless they travel and win around the world.
Phil M has never travelled, apart from the open.
The US guys are too comfortable playing target golf in the sun. It's a far cry from playing St Andrews on a cold windy day.
I think the young guys will travel more, plus there will be more emphasis on a world tour at some point.

In fairness, in the days when US players toured more outside their home turf, the two main tours were closer in stature - both with fairly moderate amounts of cash on offer. These days the US PGA tour has rocketed in terms of prize money, media coverage etc. The European tour in the same time period has been a bit more stagnant in comparison. So more players from around the world are congregating in the US, and that's were all the big tournaments are, so it's easy to see why native US players aren't overly tempted to play abroad.

That said, PM played in the HSBC last week and has been all over the press speaking positively about the Road to Dubai. While it doesn't fit his schedule this year he's making fairly definite noises about joining the tour in 09/10 and my feeling is he won't be alone.

While none of us know the truth about what happens behind the scenes to make these subtle changes happen, my gut feeling is Sergio Garcia has a good bit to do with this. Harrington's success and Poulter's pizazz are also likely to have a hand in the pro-european tour rumblings among the world's elite at the moment.

Mister Sifter

There seems to be an opinion that all the american players should run over here and start playing. I don't get it. Those boys are supporting their home tour, something we as Europeans call for from our own players.

The money and opportunity to get into the world top 50 is far greater over there. The US tour also requires a hell of a lot of travelling - America is a big place. The likes of Mickelson also has a young family too so it's undertsandable he ain't keen on flying over to Europe 12-13 times a year. the American players are spoiled rotten and in their own land, so i wouldn't blame any of them for not having the inclination to come over here...