It is well past the half-way stage of the inaugural Race to Dubai of the European Tour that eventually ends in a US$20 million grand finale called the Dubai World Championship.
There was a lot of hype leading up to its launch last year as European Tour organisers looked to lift a flagging product with some spice, mainly though a massive boost in prize money.
Whether it achieved its goal of providing decent competition for the US PGA Tour is debatable, despite the fact that several Americans had said they would play more tournaments in Europe this season.
Still, the likes of Anthony Kim, who has played eight tournaments on the new Tour, languish way behind the Europeans.
It is England’s Paul Casey who leads after the British Open with just under 2 million euros in prize money and with 11 tournaments under his belt.
Germany’s Martin Kaymer is second at a bit under 1.8 million euros after 14 tournaments with Australian Geoff Ogilvy proving to be the best pound-for-pound golfer so far in the Race with a little more than 1.5 million euros after only seven events.
He is one of two non-Europeans in the top-10, the other being Argentina’s Angel Cabrera, who is seventh on 1.14 million euros from eight tournaments.
Counting the Open at Turnberry, there have been 33 tournaments so far out of 53 on the Race calendar, which started with the Hong Kong Open last November.
From 2010 onwards, the season will start in January so the European Tour can make a clean break from a November start to a calendar year launch annually.
The Dubai World Championship is the final tournament for the leading golfers from the Race, which used to be the Order of Merit, with 10 million euros offered to the winner.
