The Tour is back on home soil

May is upon us already and the European Tour finally arrives in Europe!

So far this season only three of the 20 events played have taken place on the continent and they were relatively low key affairs in weeks where a higher profile world or major tournament was taking centre stage.

The European Tour is now a global tour and has taken us across Australia, South Africa, China, the Middle East, Thailand, Indonesia and, just last weekend, to Korea. For many tour members, the chance to spend some time closer to home will be a welcome one when the Tour touches down in Spain this weekend.

The European Tour embarked upon the route of co-sanctioning events many years ago and it has proved to be a very creative move. At a time when the economy is struggling around the world, there was a need to look towards global markets to keep the European Tour moving forwards.

George O'Grady, the Tour chief, and his predecessor, Ken Schofield, must take a lot of credit as they forged lasting relationships with all of the Tours and subsequently they have made some extremely progressive steps.

These events are hugely beneficial to Asia as well as Europe. The European Tour brings in an awful lot when it goes to Asia in terms of strengthening the fields, TV audiences, sponsorship and very importantly for the players, a big increase in prize money to levels that the Asian Tour simply cannot provide on its own. All in all, I believe events such as these are win-win.

Golf is growing all the time in Asia and we have seen the development of some wonderful players such as KJ Choi, Tongchai Jaidee, Jeev Milka Singh and also Chapchai Nirat, whom we saw setting a new Asian Tour record recently with his total of 32-under-par over 72 holes. If Asian players can win co-sanctioned events they gain exemptions for the European Tour and that allows them to play on a global stage. These guys are starting to prove they can compete with the very best European players and it's a great boost for them.

With more and more of the world's top players traveling to the east to play, the number of world ranking points available also increases. This gives the Asian Tour players the chance to qualify for Major Championships and World Golf events and compete against the world's best.

But as the Tour arrives back on European shores and the real nitty-gritty of the tournament schedule, we have an awful lot to look forward to. The Open de Espa_a and the Italian Open are really the appetizers before the main course that is the Irish Open and the Tour's flagship event at HQ, the PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club.

The Tour's top stars will be arriving back to familiar territory and the prospect of Rory McIlroy thrilling his home crowd over in Ireland along with Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell is an exciting one. From there it is a short hop across the Irish Sea to Surrey, England and the home of the European Tour at Wentworth.

Due to many of the Asian Tour's players exploits in the early part of the season it is they who will now need to start building up the air miles and live out of a suitcase for a few weeks. With the huge prizes on offer, high quality fields and glorious surroundings like the West Course at Wentworth in spring to greet them, I'm sure they won't mind!