Keith Pelley, the European Tour's chief executive, has confirmed major changes to the circuit's membership criteria and its season-ending Final Series.

The Final Series will feature just three events in 2016, with the HSBC Champions dropping out due to its different entry criteria as a WGC event and the BMW Masters coming off the schedule entirely.

The Nedbank Golf Challenge, currently limited to a 30-man invitational field, will replace the BMW Masters and see 72 players competing for a prize fund of $7million, with the Turkish Airlines Open and DP World Tour Championship completing the line-up.

The number of tournaments required to maintain Tour membership has been reduced from 13 to five, excluding the majors and World Golf Championship events.

That will make no real difference to players inside the world's top 50, but could help the likes of former world number one Luke Donald, who is currently ranked 77th but wants to play on both the PGA and European Tour.

Pelley said: "The change to our minimum tournament requirement for the 2016 season recognises that many of our members are global players who, at the same time, wish to remain loyal to the European Tour.

"When you are within the top 50 in the world rankings and eligible for the major championships and the World Golf Championships, that is attainable. But for those on the cusp, it is harder to plan.

"This change will benefit them and enable them to continue to remain in membership with us in what are extremely exciting times for the European Tour. At the same time it also ensures we have not changed or reduced the commitments required by our members to participate in 'regular' European Tour tournaments, as we continue to strive to deliver world-class fields across the globe."

Although the majors and WGC events (of which only three will feature on the Race to Dubai after the removal of the sanction for the Bridgestone Invitational) will no longer contribute towards the minimum tournament requirement, the Ryder Cup and EurAsia Cup will count as tournaments played, along with the Olympics.

The 2016 Race to Dubai consists of 45 tournaments in 25 different countries and starts next week with the Alfred Dunhill Championship, which is one of six events on South African soil. The Nedbank Golf Challenge features twice, being staged from December 3-6, 2015, and again as part of the Final Series.