Newly-crowned European No 1 Henrik Stenson has given a guarded welcome to a new European Tour regulation requiring players to support their home events or be forced to play an extra two tournaments.
Players currently have to play a minimum of 13 tournaments for European Tour membership, but that will be increased to 15 for the 2014 season if they do not contest their national open or equivalent.
The move was approved by the European Tour’s Tournament Committee last month, but comes in the wake of strong criticism from former Open champion Ernie Els over the demands placed on players.
Els was annoyed at the regulation which requires players to compete in two of the first three events of this year’s inaugural Final Series to be eligible for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, won by Stenson on Sunday.
The South African did not fulfil that criteria along with Sergio Garcia and Charl Schwartzel and was therefore not in Dubai as European Tour chief executive George O’Grady admitted that the amount of golf played by its star names had been “underestimated” and promised a comprehensive review of the format.
Stenson was planning on playing the Nordea Masters in Malmo next year anyway, but admits the clash with the Memorial Tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus on the PGA Tour could pose problems in the future.
“I was scheduled to play regardless. I am going to play Wentworth (the BMW PGA Championship) as well next year so am making a trip back and playing two weeks in a row,” Stenson said.
“It’s obviously the tough thing with playing both in America and Europe that you can’t travel however many times back and forth, but given the success I’ve had I would really want to come and play in front of my home crowds next year.
“Whether we need to have the rule or not, that could be debated, but I think to support the European Tour and your home tournaments it’s definitely a good thing to do.”