The European Tour is set to prosper as some of the game’s best player’s drop out of the FedEx Cup playoff series.

At the completion of the first FedEx Cup event, the Barclays Championship, both Louis Oosthuizen and Paul Casey are now without competition in the States.

Oosthuizen, brilliant winner of last year’s Open Championship, will contest this week’s European Masters and also next fortnight’s KLM Open and an event he contested last year as  a then reigning Major Champion.

Casey is known to be interested in contesting the September 15^th commencing Vivendi Seve Trophy, as well as the September 22^nd starting Alfred Links Championship.

Casey and Oosthuizen both failed to make the Barclays Championship cut off mark with Casey remaining in 144^th place in the FedEx Cup standings, and Oosthuizen unchanged on 148^th.

Triple Major winning Ernie Els, and also a member of the European Tour, kept his FedEx Cup playoff series alive and managing to move from 118^th position and to 99^th that ensures the South African will be eligible for this week’s second event, the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.

Els is expected to again contest the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and partner his father.

Fellow triple Major winning Padraig Harrington of Ireland is another to gain a second FedEx Cup series life in finishing in a share of 13^th place, and move to 80^th on the standings after managing to scrap into the Barclays by two places at 124^th position.

However Harrington has edged his bets as he has entered the KLM Open.

Strangely, the Irishman has not contested the Dutch event since 2002 when he finished third behind Germany’s Tobias Dier.

Harrington would also be conscious of picking up European Ryder Cup points given the situation he found himself in this time last year with regards to selection.

Also keeping their FedEx Cup series alive was England’s Ian Poulter with his share of 18^th, courtesy of a third and final round 64, lifting him from 114^th to 78^th.

Meantime –

While the second round of the FedEx Cup hopefully gets underway in Boston, most golf attention will focus on the European Masters in Switzerland.

Not only is the event the first qualifying tournament for the 2012 European Ryder Cup but it marks the return to competition of reigning Major Champions, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke.

The Northern Ireland pair have not competed since the PGA Championship in Atlanta.

Clarke first contested the Swiss event in 1992 and he played every year up to and including 2000 when he secured a best result of a share of third place.

However Clarke did not venture into The Alps again to 2007 and after not playing in 2008, he’s played the past two years.

McIlroy went close to securing a first Race to Dubai success on debut in 2008 when lost out to Frenchman Jean Francois Lucquin.

He went back in 2009 to finish seventh but missed the tournament last year as he was competing full time on the PGA Tour.

Joining McIlroy and Clarke will be the current World No. 2 Lee Westwood and World No. 4 Martin Kaymer, although Dustin Johnson’s success in New Jersey will see him move to No. 4 in the world when the rankings are adjusted tomorrow.