European Tour to embrace change for 2017 but can’t keep everyone happy | Ewan Murray


To attract names such as Patrick Reed the European Tour has had to relax its entry rules and while that has angered some the battle to keep tournaments competitive and marketable is hard to ignore

Sympathy for Keith Pelley was in short supply last week. No sooner had the European Tour’s chief executive praised strong communication with players with regards to safety at the Turkish Airlines Open than one of the group contradicted him.

“I wasn’t the only one who believed it was about to be struck off the schedule due to the security concerns there,” said Shane Lowry, in his routinely excellent column for the Irish Times. “I know everyone’s going to say how good it was in Turkey and how nice the place is but there were times last week we simply didn’t know what was going to happen and that is a situation that doesn’t suit me at all.

Related: Jordan Spieth ‘slump’ says as much about rivals’ strength as his own woes | Ewan Murray

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