Mickelson Leads International Rush to Join European Tour

After a miserable Ryder Cup defeat, spirits at the headquarters of European golf will have been lifted last night as it emerged that Phil Mickelson, the biggest name in the game after Tiger Woods, is expected to lead a phalanx of world-class players who will join the European tour next year.

The world No2 is yet to make an official announcement but multiple sources in the game confirmed yesterday that he will almost certainly commit to playing more golf outside the United States, and one leading agent said several other big names were contemplating following suit.

"I am talking about big figures in golf, big personalities who want to expand their horizons," said Guy Kinnings of the sports agency IMG, which represents many of the game's leading players including Woods and Anthony Kim, one of the stars of the US' victory at Valhalla last weekend.

Woods has already confirmed he will not be joining the tour, saying he would not be able to commit to playing in the minimum number of 11 events required for membership. But among those who have said they will play more on the European tour next year is Vijay Singh, and the Australian golfer Robert Allenby, ranked 33rd in the world, said yesterday that he was increasingly disillusioned with life on the PGA tour in the States.

"You'd be stupid not to join [the European tour]," he said. "Some tournaments over here get a bit monotonous, with the thick rough. I miss the fairway by two feet and I'm screwed. My body hasn't been handling it very well, particularly my tennis elbow. The other thing is to freshen my mind up."

Allenby may be motivated in part by personal issues but he, like others, is responding to what is widely perceived to be a shift in the balance of power in golf from the PGA tour in the States towards the European tour.

With the credit crunch affecting many American financial institutions the long-term prospects for sponsorship of golf in the US are gloomy, in stark contrast to the opportunities enjoyed by the European tour. The latter has a long tradition of staging events in the Middle East and Asia, where next year will see the start of the European tour's "Road to Dubai" series which culminates in an end-of-season tournament in the Emirates where the players will be competing for a $20m prize fund - the biggest in the history of the game.

Players such as Mickelson and Singh will continue to spend most of their year playing in the States but not even men of their means can resist that kind of money. "I can't foresee a situation where the European tour will take over from the PGA tour as the most powerful in the world but the more top-class names it attracts the more chance it has of strengthening its brand," said Andrew Chandler of ISM, one of the game's biggest agencies.