European Tour: Thomas Bjorn believes it will be a case of "money talks" when it comes to the issue of women playing in European Tour events.

Jean Van de Velde revealed last week that the proposal to ban women from fully-run tour events will be put to a vote next year. The Frenchman is a member of the 16-man European Tour board of directors which next meets on December 20th at Wentworth and, although he will be absent awaiting the birth of his third child, he has asked fellow board member Jamie Spence to raise the issue for discussion.

The matter will then be referred to the 14-member tournament players' committee, of which Bjorn is a member, who will consider in January whether to amend their rules to allow women to compete in full tour events. Recent policy set by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club will allow women to attempt to qualify for next year's British Open at Royal Liverpool.

Bjorn can sympathise with Van de Velde's point of view - the 1999 Open championship runner-up said he wanted to compete in the Women's Open to make his point - but feels tournament sponsors may have the ultimate decision on whether the likes of teenage star Michelle Wie compete against the men.

"Everybody has a case for what they are saying," said Bjorn as he prepared for this week's UBS Hong Kong Open.

"You can understand what Jean (Van de Velde) is saying, you can understand what the girls are saying. The game doesn't really differ between the sexes and if the best player in the world was a women, why shouldn't she compete with men?

"That's the overview perspective you can take. There is also the case 'where does it stop?' It's a difficult one. I think if a girl can compete with the men, then why not? But Jean has a point.

"Why shouldn't we be able to compete in their tournaments? If it works one way it has to work the other way. But it can't work the other way because that would destroy the women's game.

"You have to be careful. Michelle (Wie) is the one that seems determined to take it on and if she can make it, good luck to her. It's very much down to sponsors' invitations in regular tour events. If a sponsor wants a girl to play, who are we to argue? They put the money up for us to play for. So far the girls have not been competitive but that might change."

Wie has expressed her desire to one day compete in the US Masters, but last week missed the cut in her sixth start against the men, dropping shots at the last two holes to miss out by one shot in the Casio World Open in Japan. The Women's British Open is run by the Ladies' Golf Union, which established a gender policy this year which states: "It shall be a condition of any competition organised by the Ladies' Golf Union that players must be of the female gender."