Marc Warren has criticised the new points distribution system of the European Tour's Final Four Series, calling it 'ridiculous'.
Warren teed up on the opening day of the Turkish Airlines Open in 23rd place on the Race to Dubai money list and the assurance of his best season in nine years on the Tour. However, after posting an opening-round 67 to be lying just four shots off the lead, Warren is annoyed his hard work in the 26 events before the start of the series a fortnight ago in Shanghai could be 'nullified'.
The Tour brought in new Final Series guidelines on October 24 and a week prior to the start of the 2014 series but it took most players by surprise.
Even so, it wasn't to Germany's Marcel Siem jumped from 53rd on the Race to Dubai and to 4th place on the back on his BMW Masters success that players started to take notice.
However the controversy lies in the fact it was not the prize money of some €800,000 (£635,000) that was added to Siem's money list but 1.66m points, with each of the four Final Series offering a breakdown of 10m points and 1.66m points to each of the four winners.
As such, Siem now boasts season-earnings this year of €2,190,093 on the Tour's website when in reality the figure should be closer to €1,415,000 as his cash-in-hand prize in Shanghai was roughly €850,000.
The pony-tailed German should be lying around 17th on the money list and not a lofty fourth, with the assurance now of easily his best season plus automatic entry into next year's Open Championship and 2015 WGCs.
"They've made the decision to have 10m points in each of the four events though I'm not so sure about that being right," said Warren.
"In fact, it's ridiculous as far as I'm concerned because it nullifies a lot of what people have done in big events through the whole year. They are giving out double the points than Wentworth for these four events, which I don't think is right.
"The four Final Series events are big enough in their own right without getting falsified by a ridiculous amount of points being up for grabs.
"For someone like Marcel to go from outside the top-50 off to fourth in the Race to Dubai is nonsense and he [Marcel Siem] was quite open about that himself. Guys I've spoken to aren't very happy about it. They are a bit baffled, to be honest.
"But, at the same time, it is a great opportunity if you play well in one of these events. You can go flying up the money-list. But then I only found out during dinner on the Thursday night of the BMW Masters when someone mentioned it. I hadn't clue what they were talking about."
Warren cited the scenario of world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, who despite electing not to contest the three opening events of the Series could still lose the Race to Dubai title, after a season in winning two majors, a WGC title and a first BMW PGA.
"By doing this it's almost like having a dig at the sponsors that they've not put up enough prize-money, which certainly isn't the case. In fact, it's unbelievable how much we are playing for in these four weeks. Where you finish should be relative to how you've performed during the year but by having 10m points for each events that far outweighs most of the other events we play in.
"There's a chance, a slim one I know, that Rory McIlroy might not finish the season as the European No.1, which is ridiculous to even think about when you look at him having won two majors, a WGC and Wentworth. Last year, 33rd was my best season on the Tour and, at 23rd just now, I'm on course to beat that. However, I might finish 10th here and 10th next week and drop 20 spots."
Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez continued to upstage his more junior Tour colleagues with the near 51-year posting a nine under par 63 and on the occasion of his 642nd Tour event.
England's Ian Poulter, using a putter that helped him secure third place in last year's Open Championship, is in second place with a 64.
Joining Warren in sixth place was fellow-Scot Stephen Gallacher who sent a 240-yard rescue club to just a few feet at the first for an eagle 3. Colin Montgomerie celebrated his 600th Tour event with a 76.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article