European Tour stocks will be diminished further next year with Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke joining the 2014 PGA Tour.

Joining Clarke will be Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano while a US-based report also stated Thorbjorn Olesen will be joining the Tour but this is untrue as confirmed this morning by the Dane.

Clarke earned a 5-year PGA Tour exemption in capturing the 2011 Open Championship while ‘Gonzo’ and Olesen have earned enough this season to earn their tour card by being inside the top-125 on the money list.

Clarke and ‘Gonzo’ will now be among some 15 Europeans competing on the PGA Tour but then also needing to contest 13 European money-counting events.

Clarke had been all set to contest this week’s KLM Open, an event he won in 2008, but withdrew citing ‘personal reasons’.

On Monday and Tuesday he was in Scotland hosting his annual charity fund-raiser at Archerfield.

Also set to compete full time in the States is Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama who played the opening two rounds of this year’s Open Championship in the company of 14-time Major winning Tiger Woods.