SINGAPORE (AFP) — With the US golf industry "stagnant," Phil Mickelson revealed Wednesday that he may start playing in Europe where prize money will be significantly boosted next year in the "Race to Dubai."
The American three-time Major winner said the game was not growing in the United States and professional golfers needed to adapt by playing more internationally.
With this in mind, the world number two has his sights set on the European Tour, where he needs to play 12 events to become a member.
This will give him the chance to qualify for the season-ending Dubai World Championship tournament, where 20 million dollars will be at stake.
Mickleson, who is preparing to defend his HSBC Champions title in Shanghai next week, made the comment when asked if he would like to see next month's Singapore Open become a European Tour event, as has been suggested.
"It would be very helpful for me because I love playing in Singapore," he said in a telephone interview.
"Because of that ... if it were to become a European Tour event it would be great for me as it would be included as one of the now 12 events that you need to play to become a European Tour member.
"Although I haven't yet joined (the European Tour), it is something I am certainly considering."
The European Tour's reorganisation of its schedule next year, which culminates in Dubai, is aimed at redressing the balance of the world's biggest names playing on the USPGA Tour.
The key to this is the "Race to Dubai" format whereby the top 60 will qualify for what is billed as the richest tournament in the world and held at the Jumeirah Golf Estates course from November 19-22.
It will have a prize fund of 10 million dollars and a first prize of 1.6 million dollars.
A bonus pool of 10 million dollars will also be shared by the top 15 players in the Race to Dubai after the tournament, with the winner taking away another two million dollars.
"I think Dubai has taken one of the giant leaps to making the game of golf more global in the quality of events," said Mickelson, adding that there had been a number of contributing factors that made international golf more attractive.
"Certainly, the dollar weakening over the past few years has made foreign currencies much stronger, which makes the purses much larger, so there's been a lot of international wealth being created," he said.
"The US golf industry has been stagnant for quite some time so all of our growth has been occurring on a global basis.
"As a professional golfer we have to adapt to that by playing more internationally because that is where the opportunities are and that's where they will continue to grow.
"So I look forward to having opportunities to continue to play more internationally and I understand that that is going to be an important part of being an international golfer."
The 38-year-old, who has won twice on the US Tour this year, added that he hoped other golfers recognised the importance of not just playing more overseas but helping popularise the game in under-exploited markets.
"The States' market is stagnant so the more opportunities we can have where top players play throughout the world and expose those places to golf I think will help grow the game," he said.
"That's an important part of what we do. The (season-ending) FedEx Cup ending in September has given us much more opportunity to do that now."
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