Munich, Aug 28: World number two Ernie Els, hot favourite for this week's BMW International Open, does not plan to change his tournament schedule to safeguard his position at the top of the European Tour's money list.
The 33-year-old South African has led the order of merit race since winning the Heineken Classic in early March, but his lead was trimmed on Sunday to just 315,962 euros ($344,300) when Darren Clarke triumphed at the lucrative WGC-NEC Invitational.
Last year, Els forfeited the chance of topping the money list for the first time by skipping the season-ending Volvo Masters in Spain, and he hinted strongly on Wednesday that he would do the same this year.
"Darren's made it quite a race again, and the European boys take winning the order of merit very seriously," Els said after practice for his first tournament in Europe since failing to retain his British Open title at Sandwich last month. "It's a high honour in their estimation.

"It would be nice to win it (the European order of merit title) one of these days, but my goals are a little bit different.



"My goal is to win tournaments, and whatever goes with it goes with it. I'm not going to rearrange my schedule to try to win the order of merit.



"I've got enough tournaments on my schedule."



Els is not keen to travel to Spain for November's Volvo Masters in between playing the Tour Championship in the United States and the President's Cup team competition in South Africa.



"Ken Schofield (European Tour executive director) will want to give me a kick up the backside, but the chances are, at the moment, that I won't be playing the Volvo Masters," he said. "Let's see when we get nearer the time, there are two months still to go."



Although Northern Ireland's Clarke is not playing in Munich this week, defending champion Thomas Bjorn, currently third in the European money list, is in the field. Bjorn lies nearly one million euros behind the pacesetting Els and the Dane, who let last month's British Open title slip after leading by three with just four holes remaining, is aware the 2003 money list title is probably beyond him.



"Ernie is playing too many times in Europe and I'll be surprised if he doesn't win one or two tournaments," said Ryder Cup player Bjorn. "That makes it a tough task to catch him, and I'm not going to be chasing it," added the Dane, who this week is chasing his third win in Munich in four years.



Twice major champion John Daly, who won the 2001 BMW International Open, is also in a strong field, along with veteran Spaniard Severiano Ballesteros, who returns to European Tour action after a 14-week absence.



Ballesteros has not played since being fined at the Volvo PGA Championship in May for an outburst he made against European Tour officials at the Italian Open three weeks earlier. He then withdrew from the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth before the first round because of illness.



European Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer makes his latest attempt to claim the only German title which has so far eluded him, along with compatriot Alex Cejka, who finished fourth in the U.S. PGA Championship at Oak Hill earlier this month.



Also competing at the Nord Eichenried course are twice U.S. Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal and six-times major winner Nick Faldo.


Bureau Report