Patrick Reed gifts Euro Tour membership by not playing in Turkey

Patrick Reed’s decision to withdraw from last week’s Turkish Airlines Open turned out to change Graeme Storm’s life as a professional golfer.

You see, when Reed skipped out on the first of the European Tour’s three-event Final Series, he guaranteed that he wouldn’t meet the tour’s minimum requirement for membership, which is playing in five events on the schedule that are not majors or World Golf Championships. Reed had played in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, the Olympic golf tournament and the Ryder Cup. He had intended to play in Turkey and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Without Turkey, Reed, who is not in this week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, will not reach that minimum threshold.

In response, the European Tour has revoked Reed’s membership, removing him from their Race to Dubai standings, from which the top 111 players earn European Tour status for the next season. With Reed off the list, former No. 112 Graeme Storm is now in No. 111, the final player to secure a European Tour card.

Storm can now avoid European Tour Q-school, where he would have been headed for the first time since 2003.

“It’s an incredible relief,” Storm told the Northern Echo in his native United Kingdom. “I can’t believe the events of the last couple of weeks, when I’ve been told this and that and obviously thought I had lost my card. Now it is just total relief that I’ve got my card back and I don’t have to go back to Tour school. It’s incredible.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.