The Reason Ryder Cup Players Receive Guaranteed Access to Season-Ending DP World Tour Play-offs

The Northern Irish golfer breaks new ground by playing in the Indian tournament this week as he returns to competition for the first time since the prestigious team event.

While the golf superstar expands his golfing horizons, the European golf circuit begins the closing stage of this year's season-long championship. The world-class golfer is in pole position to secure the season-long title for the fourth consecutive year and seventh time overall.

There are only three more events following the Indian event; the subsequent week's Genesis tournament in South Korea - which wraps up the 'Back Nine' phase of the schedule - and then the final two tournaments in the Arabian region.

These particular high-stakes 'play-off' events in Abu Dhabi and the emirate are reserved for the leading seventy and then leading fifty in the season rankings.

However for players such as Tommy Fleetwood and Lowry, who are also in this tournament lineup in the subcontinent, there is reduced stress than you might imagine.

Comfortably outside the seventieth position, at initial inspection it would seem both need strong performances from their trip to the Delhi Golf Club to keep alive their seasons. Yet, in fact, they are guaranteed in advance of their places in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

This is due to a little publicised but practical exception whereby members of the European squad are also considered eligible for next month's closing tournaments.

The English golfer, who won the PGA Tour's play-offs with his stirring victory at August's Tour Championship in Georgia, lies 94th in the European tour's annual rankings. Lowry, who made the putt that secured the Ryder Cup, is one hundred fifty-fifth.

Other European team-mates who can also qualify are Ludvig Aberg (seventy-second) and Straka (one hundred forty-seventh).

This might challenge the integrity of a playoff structure, which by definition is intended to bring cut-throat high-stakes drama, but this scenario also illustrates realities faced by the headquartered DP World Tour.

The tour is dependent on big backers such as DP World, who are also the naming sponsors of this current tournament in the Asian nation. The tour requires the biggest stars at their biggest events to justify the investment, which amounts to substantial funding.

Fleetwood has experienced one of his best campaigns, highlighted by his first win on American soil at East Lake just under eight weeks past.

Fleetwood represents one of European golf's superstars and, honestly, it would be inconceivable to host the upcoming season climax without him.

Practical considerations trumps competitive integrity, even though the top-ranked player - a local resident - has reserved his best performances for tournaments that do not count on his domestic circuit.

Fleetwood has so far played only four DP World Tour events and failed to finish in the leading twenty at any tournament; the Dubai Desert Classic, UK tournament, BMW PGA Championship or Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The majors also contribute on the Race to Dubai and his sixteenth-place finish at the British Open was his only top 20 in the big four tournaments. But on the US tour he achieved seven top-five finishes.

Fleetwood was also the team's highest contributor at the New York course last month. It seems absurd for him not to be taking his place alongside the circuit's top performers at the end of the campaign.

While in the previous era the PGA and European tours were deadly rivals they are now inextricably linked thanks to the strategic alliance that underpins DP World Tour prize funds.

As Marco Penge, last week's winner of the Spanish Open, has moved into McIlroy's wing mirrors as his nearest challenger at the top of the season championship, much of the interest for the remaining schedule will have an US focus.

The narrative will be shaped by the competition for ten spots on the PGA Tour for those who do not currently possess tour cards in the United States. The rising star, with three European victories, is guaranteed of what is widely regarded as advancement to the American tour.

The Lancashire golfer, who also secured invitations to the Masters and Open with his Spanish success, is not in the tournament lineup but will mount a final push to try to overtake McIlroy at the top of the rankings.

And Dan Brown, the man Penge beat in the Spanish playoff, is one of several British golfers in the midst of the competition for a future US tour card.

Northern golfer Parry and the Bath duo of Smith and Canter also currently occupy positions that would yield a valuable opportunity for next year.

Some observers see this development as proof that the European circuit is now essentially a feeder for the larger circuit on the American continent.

But the DP World Tour argue it is a vital mechanism that supports their schedule, a necessary and attractive element that maximises competitive chances for its members.

Certainly this is the time of the year where the realities and compromises of elite golf competition seem at their most evident.