Top European Tour players want incoming Commissioner & CEO Keith Pelley to "build a circuit to rival the PGA Tour," according to Alistair Tait of GOLFWEEK. Pelley assumes his new role July 1, and among his "main objectives will be to find a way to keep players at home and get PGA Tour-based Europeans to return to Europe more often." Golfer Graeme McDowell wants Pelley to "sit down with players and agree on a way forward." McDowell said, "It's pretty tough to argue with the product that is the PGA Tour. We all know that. So how do we solve the issue; how do we give the best players in the world the opportunity to play over here, whether it be mainland Europe or Asia or wherever, but to support the European Tour more often?" Golfer Justin Rose also "wants to see the European Tour present the same sort of quality product that the PGA Tour presents each week." Rose: "There's a huge variation in the events that we play, from prize fund and quality golf course and excitement and crowd, from the top end to the bottom end. Just to try to make the mean average go up. I think for me that's what I want to see. That's what you have in America. ... It would be nice to get close to that on the European Tour." Meanwhile, golfer Luke Donald "would like for Pelley to reduce the mandatory number of events in Europe." He said that the Tour would "attract more top Americans if the number of events required for membership were reduced from the current 13" (GOLFWEEK.com, 5/19).
