Change In European Tour Schedule Opens Memorial to New Field
by Stephanie Morgan, Columbus Wired Columnist (May 29, 2003)

This year, The Memorial Tournament boasts a full third of the field from outside the United States. In particular, the movement of the Volvo PGA has allowed many players, including Reteif Goosen, to make time in their schedules for The Memorial.

The European Tour would seem to have everything - a rich in history and locals as exotic as Dubai and as historic as Loch Lemond, Scotland. However, the European Tour simply fails to pay like the US Tour. To illustrate the divide properly, one only has to look at the money leaders in both tours. On the European Tour, only two golfers have surpassed the million-dollar earnings mark this year. On the US Tour, the number is fast closing in on FIFTEEN.

Reteif Goosen, coming in an impressive 5 under par today is making his first appearance at The Memorial. Goosen is pragmatic about his absence up until now, “well, this tournament is always the same week as the Volvo PGA back in Europe. So that was pretty much the reason.” The Volvo PGA is one of the top-paying tournaments on the European Tour, with the winner this year taking home a little over $692,000. For comparison sake, The Masters paid $1,008,000 and The Memorial will pay $900,000 to the winner.

If Goosen were to maintain his 4th place status (unofficial as of this writing), he will take home $340,000. In some cases, the top prize money on the European tour is at or less than $100,000.

When asked whether those on the European Tour might approach Ken Schofield about making permanent changes, Goosen chose a diplomatic answer. “This year they did change it. The PGA was last week. Hopefully in the future it will be the same situation.”

But don’t think that Goosen is concentrating on the money. His attentions are focused on his current putter. “I changed my putter last week. I went back to my old Yes putter that I won the U.S. Open with a couple of years ago. I though maybe I should bring some old blood back to the game and see if I can get something going.”