McGinley: “Time to put the hard hats on and prepare for three or four years of disruption.”

The Daily Mail’s Derek Lawrenson speaks to European Tour board member Paul McGinley about the state of European Tour affairs as it relates to the Saudi Golf takeover bid and dilemma for players.

Warning of 3-4 years of “disruption,” McGinley said the European Tour is prepared to lose Asian Tour-tied events and even other Middle East stops.

'We're resigned to that kind of thing happening and the lawyers being involved,' said McGinley. 'If the Saudi event becomes part of the Asian Tour, will Jay Monahan (CEO of the PGA Tour) give the defending champion Dustin Johnson a release to get his $2million £1.4m) appearance fee, or Keith Pelley (CEO of the European Tour) grant releases for the leading Europeans to play? That's the path we're on, sadly.

'We've spoken to the Saudis on a number of occasions. We would love them to continue to be part of our tour but they see it a different way. They think golf is stale and want to come in as disrupters and change the whole DNA of the game.'

'The Saudi lawyers reckon the PGA Tour can't stop the players from joining and still being members but Jay is adamant that he can,' said McGinley. 'Unfortunately, it's looking like we'll end up with a massive legal case.'

But who will do the suing?

McGinley also defended the health of the European Tour post-infusion of PGA Tour money and the prospects of more domestic Europe events.

'We're not going to be eaten up by the PGA Tour. They came in with a proposal to accelerate the path we wanted to go down and it's left us in an incredibly strong financial position.

'We can help out with prize funds and the Americans are happy because the best young players can then feed into the PGA Tour. Ultimately, we'll get to where everyone wants to be. But we are going to have to suck up some disruption.'

Check out the full story as he touches on other topics of interest to European Tour fans.