The players of the European Tour that spend the greater majority of their time on the European Tour and do not have many opportunities for the big bucks on the PGA Tour or through sponsor appearance fees had good reason to worry.  With a potential flood of players in that latter crop coming the European Tour, the whole body met yesterday to discuss increasing the minimum number of official events required to be a European Tour member - and therefore qualify for the Race to Dubai and potentially the Dubai World Championship.

The players committee voted to raise the minimum from 11 to 12.

The European Tour tournament committee decided on Tuesday to increase the number of mandatory events players need to play on the European tour from 11 to 12.

The extra event, to be played on European soil, is not aimed to deter the influx of U.S. based players but introduced due to the size of the tour, committee chairman Thomas Bjorn said.

“We think that with the number of tournaments on our schedule it was time to put it up by one,” Bjorn told reporters.

“It is not a big ask to play 12 events, especially when a lot of the guys in question play four majors and three world golf championships.”

Right, that's why.  The second part of the quote is much more telling.  It explains why the minimum was bumped up.  If 11 was enough to keep Tiger Woods away, then maybe 12 would keep Phil Mickelson and others away, right?

Interestingly enough, though, not everyone was in favor of increasing the number.  In fact, some wanted to decrease the minimum.

Triple major champion Padraig Harrington was in favor of making it easier for leading players to play next year, rather than harder.

“I think it has been shown over the years that the better the standard the better the field and if we are attracting the likes of Vijay and Phil it's basically a bigger pot for everybody,” the Irishman said.

“We've never had that inflow from the States and it would be nice to get them into the events.”

Harrington added that rather than resentment by some players who would feel U.S. Tour players might be 'cherry picking' they should appreciate the other side of the coin.

“It will increase sponsorships and there will be more to trickle down to those guys who think they are losing out.”

Even crybaby Lee Westwood was in favor of getting the boisterous Americans to play in Europe more often.

“Phil is number two in the world and Vijay is high up there, so the world ranking points come along as well. It benefits the tour and everybody on the tour. It's great to have the top players in the world playing this tour,” he said last weekend.

Add at 3:57pm 10/1 - The European Tour clarified that at least 2 tournaments of the 12 must be played in Europe. So, the Open plus something else. For Phil, that's the Scottish Open.