FROM THE AOL.COM SPORTS SERVICE
Ernie Els has had his name removed from the European Tour money list
and the Open champion is no longer eligible for the £5million DP World
Tour Championship in Dubai in two weeks or a share of the £2.4million
end-of-season bonus pool.
Tour members are required to play 13 counting events in a
year and the 43-year-old South African's joint runner-up finish at the
WGC-HSBC Champions in China this weekend was only his 10th appearance on
the circuit.
To stay on the Order of Merit and play in Dubai Els would have had to
compete in this week's Singapore Open and then either the South African
Open or Hong Kong Open next week, but his next scheduled tournament is
the Asian Tour's Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia on December 13-16.
Winner of his fourth major at Royal Lytham in July, Els was initially
listed in sixth place on the "Race to Dubai" following Ian Poulter's
win this weekend, but now it will be the first time since 1997 that he
does not appear on the final list.
The top 60 at the end of next week qualify for Dubai and, with no Els,
England's Lee Slattery moves into 60th place. He plays in both Singapore
and Hong Kong.
There is a first prize of nearly £850,000 in Dubai and the bonus
pool, even though it has been slashed in half this season, ranges from
£642,000 to the leading money-winner - almost certainly Rory McIlroy -
to £64,000 for the player finishing 10th.
Scot Martin Laird and American John Daly, currently 64th and 81st
respectively, have also only played 10 events, but they stay on the
list. Laird joined as an affiliate member, while in his "past winner"
category Daly was not guaranteed 13 starts.
McIlroy, with the US PGA Tour money list title already secured, has a
lead of more than £616,000 over Ryder Cup team-mate Peter Hanson, who
has decided not to join the world number one in the next two tournaments
and could therefore be too far back come Dubai.
The same applies to third-placed Justin Rose and fourth-placed Poulter.
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