Phil To Join Euro Tour? Allenby Fleeing To Get Away From PGA Tour Rough

Lewine Mair (here) and Lawrence Donegan (here) play up the likelihood of Phil Mickelson becoming a European Tour member, and the chances of many more players playing less in the U.S.

The best part came from this Robert Allenby comment in both pieces, but elaborated on more in Donegan's piece:

But among those who have said they will play more on the European tour next year is Vijay Singh, and the Australian golfer Robert Allenby, ranked 33rd in the world, said yesterday that he was increasingly disillusioned with life on the PGA tour in the States.

"You'd be stupid not to join [the European tour]," he said. "Some tournaments over here get a bit monotonous, with the thick rough. I miss the fairway by two feet and I'm screwed. My body hasn't been handling it very well, particularly my tennis elbow. The other thing is to freshen my mind up."

And...

Allenby may be motivated in part by personal issues but he, like others, is responding to what is widely perceived to be a shift in the balance of power in golf from the PGA tour in the States towards the European tour.

And...

With the credit crunch affecting many American financial institutions the long-term prospects for sponsorship of golf in the US are gloomy, in stark contrast to the opportunities enjoyed by the European tour. The latter has a long tradition of staging events in the Middle East and Asia, where next year will see the start of the European tour's "Road to Dubai" series which culminates in an end-of-season tournament in the Emirates where the players will be competing for a $20m prize fund - the biggest in the history of the game.

Well there's one easy way for Tim Finchem to stop the bleeding pretty quickly here. Cut some rough!