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The Northern Irish golfer breaks new ground by playing in India this week as he returns to competition for the first time since the prestigious team event.

While the golf superstar widens his golfing horizons, the DP World Tour enters the final phase of this year's season-long championship. The world-class golfer is in pole position to secure the annual championship for the fourth season running and seventh occasion in total.

This includes only three more events after the Indian event; the subsequent week's Genesis Championship in Korean venue - which wraps up the second half of the tour calendar - and then the final two tournaments in the Arabian region.

These particular big money playoff tournaments in the UAE capital and the emirate are reserved for the top 70 and then top 50 in the season rankings.

However for players such as Tommy Fleetwood and Lowry, who are also in this tournament lineup in the subcontinent, there is less pressure than you might imagine.

Sitting outside the seventieth position, at first glance it would seem both require strong performances from their trip to the Delhi Golf Club to extend their seasons. But, in fact, they are already assured of their positions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

This is due to a little publicised but practical exception whereby participants of Europe's Ryder Cup team are also considered qualified for next month's closing tournaments.

Fleetwood, who triumphed in the PGA Tour's play-offs with his stirring victory at the season-ending event in Georgia, lies ninety-fourth in the European tour's annual rankings. Lowry, who made the putt that retained the Ryder Cup, is 155th.

Additional squad members who can potentially benefit are Aberg (seventy-second) and Sepp Straka (one hundred forty-seventh).

This might challenge the integrity of a playoff structure, which by definition is supposed to bring intense high-stakes drama, but this situation also illustrates realities faced by the Wentworth-based European circuit.

They are dependent on major sponsors such as the title partner, who are also the title sponsors of this week's event in the Asian nation. They need the top players at their premier tournaments to justify the financial commitment, which runs to substantial funding.

The talented golfer has enjoyed one of his best campaigns, highlighted by his maiden victory on US territory at the Atlanta course just under two months ago.

Fleetwood represents one of European golf's superstars and, honestly, it would be unthinkable to host the upcoming season climax without him.

Common sense trumps competitive integrity, even though the world number five - a Dubai resident - has saved his best performances for tournaments that do not qualify on his home tour.

Fleetwood has to date played only four DP World Tour events and failed to finish in the top 20 at any of them; the Middle Eastern event, Scottish Open, flagship event or Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Major championships also count on the Race to Dubai and his sixteenth-place finish at the Open was his only top 20 in the big four tournaments. However on the US tour he enjoyed seven placements in the top five.

Fleetwood was also Europe's top points scorer at Bethpage last month. It would be ridiculous for him not to be participating alongside the tour's leading stars at the conclusion of the campaign.

While in the past the PGA and European tours were deadly rivals they are now closely connected thanks to the strategic alliance that underpins European tour financial rewards.

As the English golfer, recent champion of the Spanish Open, has moved into close pursuit as his closest rival at the top of the season championship, much of the interest for the rest of the season will have an American bias.

The narrative will be driven by the scramble for 10 places on the American circuit for those who do not currently possess playing rights in the US. Penge, with three European victories, is assured of what is widely regarded as 'promotion' to the American tour.

The Clitheroe-based pro, who also secured invites to the Masters and British Open with his Spanish success, is not in the India field but will mount a final push to try to overhaul McIlroy at the peak of the rankings.

And the English competitor, the player the champion defeated in the Spanish playoff, is one of four other Britons in the midst of the competition for a future US tour card.

Northern golfer John Parry and the West Country pair of Smith and Canter also presently hold positions that would yield a golden ticket for next year.

Certain analysts see this scenario as evidence that the DP World Tour is now nothing more than a feeder for big brother on the other side of the pond.

However the organization maintain it is a vital mechanism that underpins their tour calendar, a necessary and attractive feature that maximises competitive chances for its participants.

Undoubtedly this is the time of the year where the practical aspects and necessary adjustments of elite golf competition seem at their most evident.