Graeme McDowell fears the PGA Tour is actively trying to "steal" Europe's top players, with events such as this week's Irish Open suffering as a result.

Of the top 20 on the European Tour Order of Merit last year only six are playing at Adare Manor in Limerick, with star names like Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey and Luke Donald all absent.

With Darren Clarke also missing with a hamstring injury the field is considerably weaker than in previous years, and McDowell feels the new FedEx Cup in the States is having a major effect.

Under the new system, players will earn points throughout the year and the top 144 will be eligible for four "play-off" tournaments - the Barclays Classic, Deutsche Bank Championship, BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.

Players will be eliminated after each play-off event and the field will be reduced to 30 players, as usual, for the Tour Championship. The player with the most points after that earns a cool £5million (€7.3m approx).

"Obviously with the FedEx Cup they are going all out to steal all our top players off us and get them playing over there as often as they possibly can," said McDowell, who is back on the European circuit after failing to keep his US Tour card in 2006.

"They do have money to offer, they do have TV, they do have the stars, they do have Tiger Woods.

"It's tough for our boys to not want to go over there and there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Certainly I'm looking forward to being back out there in the future.

"This is going to be a voyage of discovery this year with the FedEx Cup. There is no doubt there is a magnetic effect for the top players out there, and if it works well and suits a lot of guys it really can look gloomy for the future as far as star players go.

"It would be awful to think this tour was a nursery for the PGA Tour. We do see a lot of Australian players come here, learn their trade and never see them again as they go to the US Tour.

"The PGA machine is certainly getting bigger and bigger and more magnetic, but I think the one thing the European Tour has on its side is loyalty.

"The players know where they came from and there is still an underlying support and desire for the tour to do well."

McDowell, a member of the victorious 2001 Walker Cup team and two-time tour winner, admitted the necessity of qualifying for future Ryder Cup teams could help swing things back in the European Tour's favour, but that will not help this week's event at a rainswept Adare Manor.

European number one Padraig Harrington is here to possibly boost the attendance, but he admits players are spoilt for choice and previous bad experiences with the Irish weather may have put some players off.

Last year's event at Carton House went into a fifth day due to bad weather and Harrington said: "I think with the Irish Open it's not necessarily the date, it's just maybe notched down in players' minds because of the iffy weather they've been exposed to in the last couple of years. It's not a priority in some of the players' minds.

"There are a number of events both here and in the States that are struggling to get the field they want to, and it's not because of the quality of the event or the prize money. There's a lot of choice and we can't play every week unfortunately.

"I'll probably play 30 events this year because I can't turn down so many good events, but that's too many."

Thomas Bjorn recovered from a first round 78 to win at Carton House 12 months ago, and comes into the event in good form after finishing sixth in Spain last week.

Last week's winner Lee Westwood is also in the field, along with Miguel Angel Jimenez and Paul McGinley, who has been singing the praises of the course.

"It's my favourite inland course in Ireland, I think it's wonderful," said McGinley.
"I think it's going to play extremely long this week with the new tee boxes they put in and the weather we're going to have. The rough is like a US Open."