Tiger Woods will consider the possibility of joining the European Tour after changes to membership qualification criteria.

The European Tour indicated that participation in the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and Seve Trophy will now count towards the 13 events a player will need to contest to be a member.

Woods was asked about the possibility of taking out membership after defeating fellow American Matt Kuchar in today’s second round of the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final.

The next step Tiger Woods takes could be joining the European Tour with plans to now additional tournaments to membership criteria. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

“It’s been a long time since I looked at the possibility of taking out European Tour membership and that was back in 2000,” he said.

“I knew I would have to play one of two more events back then when it was 11 but now that criteria is 13, so that was the last time I seriously took a look at it.

“I don’t know what my numbers are as I know I played 19 in the States this year and whether it crosses over or not.

“I did play Abu Dhabi but then 13 are certainly a lot more than 11 especially playing full time in the States.”

If Woods were a member of the European Tour and the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup were a counting events, and when you include the four Majors and the four WGC events plus an appearance in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai, the 14-time Major winner would be only two to three events short of the 13.

Woods recorded his first victory in the $US 7m Turkish event in defeating Kuchar by five shots with a four under par 67 to Kuchar’s one over par 72 on the Sultan Course at the Antalya Golf Club.

He was due to face  World No. 1 Rory McIlroy in this afternoon’s much-anticipated showdown but then thunderstorms put paid to that in the first time McIlroy and Woods have faced each other in a head-to-head match-play situation.

However McIlroy faces a near impossible task to make the semi-final after losing a second match and this time to South African Charl Schwartzel who carded a 70 to McIlroy’s 71.

“I played bit a better than yesterday but then Charl birdied three of the last four holes and you can’t really do much about that,” said McIlroy.

“So in my match now against Tiger I will be out to get back a bit of pride and at least leave here winning one match.

“It will be exciting to play against him as he still has the chance to go through so he will be looking to win his match.

“I now don’t have much to play for so I would like to beat him so he doesn’t go through to the semi-finals and also get some bragging rights.

“Of course, there is always an added edge when you play against a player like Tiger and there were a few chances this year when we could have gone head-to-head in the bigger tournaments but it didn’t quite happen.

“So I am still looking forward to next season when he can go head-to-head down the stretch.

“And bragging rights from this week will help a little bit.”

In other morning round two matches Justin Rose defeated Lee Westwood with a round of 66 to Westwood’s 69.

And reigning U.S. Open champion, Webb Simpson recorded his first win in the event and leaving Hunter Mahan winless with a score of 65 to Mahan’s 67.