"A great deal of the PGA Tour ongoing relevance in Korea owes itself to the Qualifying School."

Ben Sellenger makes a strong case that top Asian players interested in playing around the world will choose the European Tour now that Q-School sends them to the Nationwide Tour. Besides a Jeremy Lin reference and reminding us that K.J. Choi came to the PGA Tour through Q-School, he writes (thanks reader Josh):

The 6 or 7 events that European Tour co-sanctions with Asian Tour, OneAsia, Korean Tour and the like across the region only further skew this position.  

And as the various tours in Asia grow, in terms of both number of tournaments and prize money on offer, there is no question leading Asian players will increasingly stay at home and consider end of year options.  When a leading Asian player can play nearly every week between March and December in Asia for more than a million US dollars by combining Japan Golf Tour, Asian Tour and OneAsia opportunities, still have access to half a dozen multi-million dollar co-sanctioned events, and then have the chance to gain European Tour status at the end of the year if they want, you can start to understand why the prospect of playing an entire season on Nationwide Tour for US$600,000 a week is not that attractive.