Does the PGA Tour suffer? Not necessarily.

Tiger Woods does not plan to join. What the last four months have shown is that if Woods doesn't play, does anyone care?

And while $20 million sounds like a lot in Europe, the FedEx Cup pays $35 million in bonus money, with four $7 million tournaments leading up to that. It still pays to play on the PGA Tour, which is why so many Europeans do.

If Mickelson were to join, he likely would play two events in Asia (after the PGA Tour season ends), along with the French Open and Scottish Open in July. He has played at Loch Lomond the last three years, and to play the French Open would mean missing the AT&T National at Congressional, which Lefty didn't play last year, anyway.

Singh played 23 times on the PGA Tour this year, and to miss a couple of events would not do any harm.

"The players that move the needle significantly — whatever list you go by — most of them are players that are playing a couple of times overseas now, anyway,'' PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said. "It wouldn't take players a lot to play the requisite number, and they can get there without changing their PGA Tour schedule.

"We're keeping an eye on it,'' Finchem said. "What currently is on the table wouldn't appear to have a dramatic effect.''

Of the 12 players on the PGA Tour and European tour money lists this year, only three of them have played at least 25 times on both tours so far this year — Daniel Chopra (29), Retief Goosen (26) and Trevor Immelman (25).

It's not asking much to play both tours, and more players should consider it.

Having two strong tours is good for golf.

If there is cause for concern about Europe's new world — beyond the 11 "TBAs'' on the schedule, including the Irish Open and European Open — it is the dependence on one group for so much money. The tour now is in a partnership with Dubai-based Leisurecorp, and one can only hope the important golf decisions are left to people who know golf.

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