Scotland’s Marc Warren has joined a chorus of concern in slamming the new point’s distribution of the European Tour’s Final Four Series declaring the new system is ‘ridiculous’.
Warren teed up on the opening day of the Turkish Airlines Open flying high at 23rd on the Race to Dubai money list and the assurance of his best-ever season in nine years competing on the Tour.
However heading into the second round at four shots off the lead Warren’s annoyed all his hard work in 26 prior events before the start of the Series a fortnight ago in Shanghai could be ‘nullified’.
As as we pointed out in an earlier story concerning Shane Lowry the Tour brought in new Final Series guidelines on October 24th and a week prior to the start of the 2014 ‘Play Offs’ but it took most players by surprise.
Marc Warren recently spotted playing the Balcomie Course at the Crail Golfing Society. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
But it wasn’t to Germany’s Marcel Siem jumped from 53rd on the Race to Dubai and to 4th place on the back on his BMW Masters success that players started to take notice.
However the controversy lies in the fact it was not the prize money of some Euro 800,000 (Stg 635,000) that was added to Siem’s money list but the 1.66m points, and with each of the four Final Series offering a breakdown of 10m points and 1.66m points to each of the four winners.
As such, Siem now boasts season-earnings this year of Euro 2,190,093 on the Tour’s website when in reality the figure should be closer to Euro 1,415,000 as his cash-in-hand prize in Shanghai was roughly Euro 850,000.
Siem then should be lying around 17th on the money list and not a lofty fourth with the assurance now of easily his best season plus automatic entry into next year’s Open Championship and 2015 WGCs.
Warren said: “They’ve made the decision to have 10 million points in each of the four events though I’m not so sure about that being right.
“In fact, it’s ridiculous as far as I’m concerned because it nullifies a lot of what people have done in big events through the whole year.
“They are giving out double the points than Wentworth for these four events, which I don’t think is right.
“The four Final Series events are big enough in their own right without getting falsified by a ridiculous amount of points being up for grabs.
“For someone like Marcel to go from outside the top-50 off to fourth in the Race to Dubai is nonsense and he (Marcel Siem) was quite open about that himself.
“Guys I’ve spoken to aren’t very happy about it. They are a bit baffled, to be honest. But, at the same time, it is a great opportunity if you play well in one of these events. You can go flying up the money-list.
“But then I only found out during dinner on the Thursday night of the BMW Masters when someone mentioned it. I hadn’t clue what they were talking about.”
Warren cited the scenario of World No. 1 Rory McIlroy, who despite electing not to contest the three opening events of the Series could still lose the Race to Dubai title, and after a season in winning two Majors, a WGC title and a first BMW PGA.
Warren said: “These events are massive in their own right, but by doing this it’s almost like having a dig at the sponsors that they’ve not put up enough prize-money, which certainly isn’t the case. In fact, it’s unbelievable how much we are playing for in these four weeks.
“Where you finish should be relative to how you’ve performed during the year but by having 10 million points for each events that far outweighs most of the other events we play in.
“There’s a chance, a slim one I know, that Rory McIlroy might not finish the season as the European No 1, which is ridiculous to even think about when you look at him having won two majors, a WGC and Wentworth.
“Last year – 33rd – was my best season on the Tour and, at 23rd just now, I’m on course to beat that. However, I might finish tenth here and tenth next week and drop 20 spots due to the Tour’s point’s position.”
