European Tour News is a weekly booklet available to players, media and officials from other golfing organisations, including the Golf Masters Tour. The writing is unashamedly, or certainly unmistakably, biased in favour of the European Tour.
In the future, you could read in it something on the lines of "Tiger Woods won his 22nd major in a row when he captured the 2005 British Open last Sunday with a closing round of 59 at Saint Andrews. European Tour member Sven Svensson finished seventh to move into the top 20 in the world rankings for the first time. Indeed, were it not for Woods, it would have been the best Open for European Tour members since Ernie Els and Thomas Bjorn tied for second five years ago."
Els was awarded life membership of the European Tour last year "in recognition of his two US Open wins and three successive world matchplay titles". It was also a handy way of keeping him officially a member of the Tour without having to play very many European events. Fortunately we don't have to be so Machiavellian in our dealings, as our co-sanctioning agreements mean that all the top players hold membership of the Golf Masters Tour. Our biggest problem is going to be determining a fair value for Woods in advance of next season without radically changing the competition's structure.
The way things are going he is going to end this year as our highest earner, near the top of our value-for-money category and amazingly is on course to average over £100,000 from the events in which he has played. So far he has amassed £964,467 from his nine appearances for average takings of £107,163.
Well-timed transferring of Woods looks like being the key to ultimate success for our managers. Thirty-seven teams, including the top two overall, added him before the Open, but when will he play again? With just seven more weeks to go in the season, it is time for the heavyweight managers, transfers in hand, to get researching.
How to transfer
If you wish to transfer you should have your team's PIN number ready before calling the competition number.
1550 92 49 05 (Republic of Ireland)
0906 604 0100 (Northern Ireland and Britain)
Calls cost 58p per minute in the Republic of Ireland and 60p per minute in Northern Ireland and Britain - all charges include VAT.
Competition helpline: 01-2844060 between 10.0 am and 5.30 pm (Monday to Friday). Normal telephone charges apply to this number. Servicee provided by Phonovation Ltd
