Grand plans propel Dubai's status
The European Tour is to stage the world's richest golf tournament in Dubai - but not until November 2009.
Confirmation of the £4.88million (10 million US dollars) Dubai World Championship and an Order of Merit bonus pool worth the same amount came on Monday morning.
European Tour chief executive George O'Grady said: "This is so much more than a tournament sponsorship. It's a long-term partnership which will see the European Tour and Dubai joining together to significantly enhance the game worldwide and take golf to a new level for spectators everywhere."
The Order of Merit will be renamed The Race to Dubai and the number one player will receive - at the current exchange rate - a bonus of £976,562.
Coupled with the tournament first prize of £813,798 it means that one putt at the end of the week could be worth nearly £1.8million.
Not that that is a record in these lucrative times for golf. When Tiger Woods won the Tour Championship on the PGA Tour in September he earned himself almost £5.5million - £615,000 for the event and a £4.8million annuity bonus for topping the FedEx Cup standings.
Nevertheless, the Dubai announcement is a significant milestone in the development of the European Tour, which for so long has been hoping to hit back at the financial clout of the American circuit.
The first five years of their new partnership with Leisurecorp, the company developing Dubai's leading residential golf community, will also see the construction of a new international headquarters for the European Tour and the creation of a global property company to develop new tournament venues around the world.
The inaugural Dubai World Championship will take place at Leisurecorp's Jumeirah Golf Estates between November 19-22 on either the Fire or Earth course.
