It used to be that the climax to a European Tour season involved no more than moving from one part of Spain to another. How times have changed.

Paul Casey has flown from China to America to see if he is fit enough to play in Dubai next week, while Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy have moved on from Shanghai to Hong Kong to continue their fight for the number one spot.

And that is not all. Others are venturing all the way to Melbourne to try to save their Tour careers.

It was only last month it was announced the JBWere Masters - what used to be the Australian Masters - featuring Tiger Woods, was part of the Tour's schedule.

That threw a lifeline to the likes of former Ryder Cup Scot Andrew Coltart, Ireland's Gary Murphy and England's Benn Barham, who in September was denied a first Tour victory only when Spaniard Rafael Cabrera-Bello produced a closing round of 60 to pip him by one.

The top 115 on the money list earn cards for next season's circuit and, with only four rounds left, Coltart lies 122nd, Murphy 127th and Barham 130th.

In Hong Kong, meanwhile, the same pressure is on a group of players including 2004 PGA champion Scott Drummond, Spaniard Pablo Martin - the first amateur ever to take a Tour title - and 21-year-old Oliver Fisher.

Drummond earned a five-year exemption by winning the first prize of nearly £420,000 at Wentworth in 2004 but the 35-year-old Scot made the cut in only three of 25 events last year and, in spite of much better form this season, stands 136th on the Order of Merit.

Martin was poised to end his worries when he stood fourth with a round to go in the Portugal Masters last month. But, while playing partner Westwood shot 66 and won, the 23-year-old crashed to 37th place with a 77.

As a result, he stands 118th and still needs to earn at least £9,000 for safety - more, obviously, if those around him do well this week.

In 2005, Fisher became the youngest ever Walker Cup cap at 16 and was seen as just as good a prospect as McIlroy.

Last year he led the Andalucian Open with one to play but bogeyed it after his tee shot ran through the fairway into water and then lost the play-off to Thomas Levet.

This year the Essex youngster had a nightmare run of 15 out of 19 missed cuts and, although he has finished in the top 25 on his last three starts, he is 124th and so still has to climb nine spots.

Darren Clarke, meanwhile, is also in Hong Kong trying to move up three places into the leading 60 and so grab a place in the season-ending Dubai World Championship.

But Westwood and McIlroy are inevitably the headline acts at Fanling, separated by less than £47,000 coming to the end of a campaign in which both have earned more than £2million.

Last November, McIlroy was in a play-off with Taiwan's Lin Wen-tang and Italian Francesco Molinari that Lin won at the second extra hole.

McIlroy was 63rd in the world going into that week. Now the 20-year-old is 17th.