Until recent years most British golfers were likely to concentrate upon the European Tour events and restrict their visits to the US to the Majors and other particularly significant competitions.

However, the increasing globalisation of the sport has seen a number of players abandon Europe in search of bigger prize-money pots in North America.

To some extent, it was Nick Faldo who started the trend when he relocated to the PGA Tour in 1995, as he wanted to focus his game more upon the Majors, three of which are in the US.

Ultimately this paid off, as one of his three PGA Tour wins came in the 1996 US Masters.

Faldo's 1990 win in the same tournament had already seen him named PGA Player of the Year, while Irishman Padraig Harrington is the only other European to win that title after his success in the Open and US PGA Championship in 2008.

In 2008 the top-earning British golfer on the PGA Tour was Lee Westwood, who took home more than US $1.5 million, despite playing in only 10 events as a result of his simultaneous membership of the European Tour.

Others to top the US $1 million mark in that year were Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Luke Donald and Brian Davis, the last-named being the holder of a full PGA Tour card which he initially gained when qualifying through Q-school in 2005 and has subsequently retained through finishing in the top 125 on the money list each year since.