The European Open has been part of the European Tour every season since 1978, but do not make plans yet to see it back at The London Club next year - or anywhere else.

Tour chief executive George O'Grady has described the immediate future of the tournament as "very uncertain", although he is hopeful that talks with a sponsor for 2011 and beyond will bear fruit.

"We're at an advanced stage, but I've learnt that nothing is certain until you sign contracts," he said.

With no word at the moment of the British Masters reappearing on the schedule - it was planned for this September, but had to be cancelled - and the return of the English Open at St Mellion put off until 2011, next season might see just one event in England.

That is the Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship on May 20-23 at Wentworth, where in addition to all 18 greens being dug up and relaid a ditch has been added on the famous final hole to toughen it up.

Although the 2010 schedule has not been released beyond April's US Masters yet, Scotland is again shaping up to have four tournaments.

They would be the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond in July followed a week later by The Open at St Andrews, the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in August, which would once again the final qualifying event for the Ryder Cup, and the Dunhill Links Championship back at the Home of Golf, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns in October.

Celtic Manor has both the Wales Open at the start of June and, of course, the Ryder Cup on October 1-3, while the 3 Irish Open is moving to Killarney and to a later date of July 29-August 1.

Property company Leisurecorp, whose difficulties with last week's Dubai World Championship led to the prize money being slashed by 25%, also backed the European Open after the ending of the sponsorship deal with the Smurfit Kappa Group in Ireland.

Last year Ross Fisher took home a first prize of £400,000 when it switched from The K Club to The London Club, but it was almost £100,000 down this May when France's Christian Cevaer lifted the title.

All this just goes to show that golf has felt the pinch along with everyone else during the economic downturn, although the figures in Dubai were still huge - Lee Westwood's reward for winning the tournament and topping the Order of Merit was a Tour record £1.6million.

The top 19 finishers on the inaugural Race to Dubai all earned in excess of £1million during the season. Last year it was only the leading 11, but there was no bonus pool in operation then and that would have taken another three to seven figures.

Similarly, the amount needed to keep a European Tour card this year was the £223,501 by England's Seve Benson, while 12 months ago it was the £177,759 by Frenchman Francois Delamontagne.

Compare that, though, to the US PGA Tour. Tiger Woods finished top with £6.3million - £2.6million more than Westwood - while 51 players earned more than £1million and anybody earning less than £398,000 lost their card.

To keep their upward movement and to try to narrow the gap between the two circuits the European Tour has, of course, spread its wings and gone globetrotting.

Sixty-year-old O'Grady made five trips to the Middle East, four to China and two to America this season alone and both Keith Waters, director of international policy, and Ryder Cup director Richard Hills have upped their travelling too to allow O'Grady more time at home.

Ken Schofield was in charge from 1975 through to the end of 2004, but O'Grady worked with him all that time and speculation is bound to grow about the length of his tenure.

O'Grady is on a rolling contract and with choosing the 2018 Ryder Cup on continental Europe now under way he states: "I'd like to see through the decision-making process for that."

Six countries - France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Spain - will all be submitting bids. Le Golf National in Paris, The Montgomerie in Holland and Bro Hof in Stockholm have already been selected as candidate courses.

***

Two weeks ago Justin Rose finished one shot out of a play-off on the US Tour, his best performance since February.

And what did it do for his world ranking? Nothing.

Because three players were in the play-off and Australian Nick O'Hern was alongside him in joint fourth place the ranking points Rose earned merely kept him at 65th.

That left him one last chance this season to get back into the top 50 to secure a place at The Masters, but he could manage only 50th spot in Dubai and now ranks 68th.

Before heading into his end-of-year break Rose said: "I'm gutted. I did a lot of good work in Florida and all I did was maintain my position - it's not easy."

The 29-year-old will now need a fast start to 2009 to be part of the Augusta action.

***

Phillip Price, one of the heroes of the 2002 Ryder Cup, had his future on the line in Dubai - even though he was not playing.

Price, now 43, slumped not only to 198th on this season's Order of Merit, but also to 38th on the career money list.

The top 40 on that earn an exemption for next year and with the huge bonus pool money counting there were a long list of players who could have overtaken him.

Fellow Welshman Bradley Dredge did, but Luke Donald, Nick Dougherty and Simon Dyson were among those who fell short and so Price survives.