Together, they make an easy metaphor for anyone looking to starkly contrast life on the PGA Tour versus that on the European Tour. But comparing the chaotic and crowded atmosphere of the recent Presidents Cup with the bleak anonymity of the Seve Trophy, then drawing a hasty and unthinking conclusion, would be both unfair and misleading.

Photo: © Created by Sal Johnson

While the almost total absence of spectators in Ireland for the match between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe was disappointing, the lack of interest shown by the locals had more to do with the absence of Open champion Padraig Harrington than it did any underlying apathy towards the European Tour as a whole. Equally, the biggest factor in the enthusiasm of the packed galleries in Montreal was the presence of Canada’s number one, Mike Weir, rather than anything more directly attributable to the PGA Tour. At both ends of the scale, insularity is alive and well in professional golf.

Still, only a fool would argue that any of the world’s various circuits is, by itself, a credible rival to the all-powerful PGA Tour. Certainly, the European Tour is no match on any level, other than when it comes to Ryder Cups. Were it not for the biennial match, of course, the European Tour would not be nearly as financially strong as it is, a fact underlined only last week by executive director George O’Grady.

“The Ryder Cup is absolutely vital to the health of the European Tour,” he said at the Presidents Cup. “It is crucial.”

Just to underline the relative impecuniousness of his organisation, O’Grady also commented on the cost of drug testing if and when the time comes to pass (urine) in professional golf. By his estimate, the cost to the tour will be £500 per player per week. In other words, £72,000 will have to be found from somewhere – most likely the prize fund – to make sure no one is taking something they shouldn’t be.

Also furrowing the O’Grady brow at present is the on-going problem of what to do about the PGA Tour’s new-fangled Fed-Ex Cup series. With more and more of his leading players spending more and more of their time inside the United States, he has to come up with new and inventive ways to keep stars like Harrington, Paul Casey, Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia at home.

So, as the European Tour heads into this week’s HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, where golf’s biggest first prize, £1m, will be on offer, there is no doubt that this is a time of great importance for the professional game’s second circuit. The inaugural Fed-Ex Cup has come and gone, the European Tour seems to have survived, but a period of reflection and adjustment is called for.

Photo: © Stuart Franklin/Getty Images George O'Grady (right), CEO of the European Tour, pictured with President of the European Golf Association Andy Morgan realizes the uphill battle that faces them with all of the problems that lie ahead.

“One of the biggest worries we had was over the field for the Mercedes Championship in Germany last month,” says Thomas Bjorn, the new chairman of the European Tour Tournament Committee. “But we had a great turn-out there, even though it clashed with the Tour Championship in the States. You have to remember that there are only 30 players left in the Fed-Ex Cup by that stage and most of them are Americans. So there are perhaps only two weeks where we are losing out on a significant number of players. We did okay, I think.

“In general, the state of the tour is very healthy. George and Keith (Waters) have done a great job adding tournaments. And there will be even more next year in places like India. We have a situation where it is better to focus on what we have and how we go forward rather than what is going on elsewhere.”

Which is not to say that a few anxious glances have not been stolen across the Atlantic over the last 18 months or so.

Take next year’s Fed-Ex schedule, one that looks to be even more problematical than this year’s. With the Ryder Cup due to start only five days after the climax of the PGA Tour season, the Tour Championship, cynical souls may conclude that commissioner Tim Finchem, whose organisation derives no financial benefit from the Ryder Cup, is at best trying to make life difficult for the European Tour, at worst attempting to put them out of business.

“I’m not sure what planting the Ryder Cup right at the end of the Fed-Ex Cup says about the PGA Tour,” muses former Ryder Cup player Ken Brown. “The Ryder Cup is what golf is all about. So don’t go about spoiling it. I wonder why Finchem is trying to squeeze it into the sidelines.

“Besides, I don’t think four Fed-Ex events in a row followed by the Ryder Cup is going to work. If I was a leading player I’d be pointing out that not every week can be prestigious and that I just don’t have the firepower to maintain my game at its highest level for that sustained length of time.”

Photo: © Phil Inglis/Getty Images British golf announcer Peter Alliss feels that PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem doesn't really care what happens to the European Tour.

Others are adopting an even more aggressive stance in the face of what is seen as an unfair and overly insular move by the PGA Tour.

“This so-called ‘special relationship’ between Great Britain and the United States in all things doesn’t seem to exist in golf,” concludes BBC commentator and former Ryder Cup player, Peter Alliss. “As much a politician as Tim Finchem is, I’m not sure he really cares about the European Tour. If we went under I’m not sure it would register on his radar. He’s always squeezing dates. The Ryder Cup is moving farther and farther back. All it will take is a bit of mist in the morning and they won’t get the next couple played in three days.

“He doesn’t really seem to care. He’s always going on about playing against the rest of the world, but only on his own terms. I remember when Greg Norman was going to start a so-called ‘world tour.’ Finchem killed that then virtually copied what Greg was proposing.

“I’m concerned that, if you were in a sinking ship with Finchem and there was only one lifeboat, you wouldn’t get that lifeboat. He’d have it and you’d go down with the ship. I really don’t think he gives a shit. He’d be very apologetic, but at the end of the day he’d be looking after his own.”

On the other hand, there are those who see the coming of the Fed-Ex Cup as something of an opportunity for a European Tour looking to take advantage of the PGA Tour’s new and shorter season.

“The Fed-Ex Cup can help the European Tour in many ways,” points out Sky Television pundit Ewen Murray. “Phil Mickelson will be in Shanghai next month, for example. If he develops a taste for travel – he now has how own plane - that can only be a good thing for the European Tour.

Photo: © Warren Little/Getty Images Sky Sports announcer Ewen Murray feels that there could be some positives in which the FedEx Cup helps the European Tour.

“But a lot of what the European Tour can do is dictated by what Finchem does. You have to respect that. They have a great tour over there. It’s where the money is. It’s where the ranking points are. So it’s where the best players will go. What you have to do is fit in with what they do and get our best players and some of theirs back here as often as possible. I’m thinking November would be a very good time to do that.

“There is no meaningful golf in the US now until January and that is something the European Tour will have to look at. I can see the ‘Gulf Swing’ moving to the Autumn, some time after the Fed-Ex Cup. November is lovely there. It could be as long as five weeks, with maybe three big events book-ended by a couple of smaller ones. Or you start with the smaller ones and move into the bigger weeks.”

There are other times when the European Tour could take advantage of a less-inspiring run of PGA Tour events. To a fall spent in the warmth of the Gulf states, one could also add a month-long celebration of links golf immediately after the US Open and climaxing at the Open Championship.

Then there is the question of an off-season. The European Tour currently ‘boasts’ more than 50 events and runs basically 12 months a year, the only small gap being Christmas week. That has to change, at least according to Murray.

“The European Tour needs an off-season, maybe in March, before the year’s first major,” he asserts.

All in all, however, despite the pessimism expressed by many when the Fed-Ex series was first announced, it appears that the European Tour is ticking over nicely. It isn’t the biggest thing in golf, nor is it going to be any time soon, but with careful and judicious planning, its role a notch or two behind the PGA Tour is as valid as it ever was.

“It’s important to note that the tour is still booming forward,” points out Brown. “There is nothing bad going on other than the fact that some events are having trouble getting the best players as much as they want them.

“There will only be a reaction if the sponsors turn round and complain that, if they can’t get the field they want, they aren’t going to put up the money. That hasn’t happened yet.”

And you better believe O’Grady is hoping it never does.