Big Changes Coming To Euro Tour Final Series, China Swing?

I'm glad someone went to Turkey for the start of the European Tour's Final Series, which now makes a weird leap to the HSBC Champions in Shanghai without some of Europe's best players. That, reports Alex Miceli at Golfweek.com, is about to come to end.

Miceli says there may be fleeing from HSBC and BMW from the current China swing that is carried out over the next two weeks, leading to big scheduling changes for both European and PGA Tours. The real domino may be HSBC ending its run in Shanghai:

The fate of the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, however, remained uncertain.

HSBC, the London-based banking company, has sponsored the prestigious event since 2005 but reportedly was looking at not extending its contract with the World Golf Championships past this year because of increased scrutiny of the bank and its expenses.

“This is our last year of our golf portfolio, so we are in discussions with everybody,” Giles Morgan, HSBC’s global head of sponsorship and events, said at the Sports Matters industry conference in September in Singapore, according to Agence France-Presse.

Morgan has been outspoken (and maybe a tad inconsistent) about appearance fees as well, but carries a great deal of power in the golf sponsorship world.