The European Tour has laid down the gauntlet to the rival US PGA Tour with an ambitious and rich schedule that leads to a $20 million finale in Dubai.
The schedule starts in early November and will include two Hong Kong Open events. The aim is to complete 2009 so that the next Tour can start in January 2010. From then on, it will have a January start every year.
The Order of Merit will be renamed Race to Dubai, which culminates in the Dubai World Championship. This tournament will be open to the top 60 players on the Tour with $10 million for the winner and another $10 million is to be shared among the other top 15 finishers.
The new format is a direct challenge to the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup, won this year by Fijian Vijay Singh, who pocketed the $10 million first prize.
Already, players such as Singh and Phil Mickelson are thinking about becoming members in addition to Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby and Adam Scott.
The European Tour is making it easy for PGA Tour players to become eligible for Dubai by making it a requirement that they play at least 12 tournaments on the Tour, two of them on European soil.
With the four majors and three World Golf Championships also part of the European Tour, that means the leading PGA Tour players need only take part in four other Euro events before Dubai.
Spanish star Sergio Garcia, who helped launch the new Tour on Monday, was quoted in the Canadian Press as saying:
“The tour has clearly moved up a gear in its ability to attract the world’s best players. It will certainly help focus the interest of the players, and I for one will be seeking to get to Dubai and make a great finish to the season.â€
However, while the European Tour will raise its prestige, the PGA Tour will remain strong. After all, the FedEx Cup series is worth $35 million and with world number one Tiger Woods likely to stay in the US, the Race to Dubai may be without the sport’s biggest attraction.
dont you think it;s disgraceful that tours are awarding such obscene sums of money to the top 60 players who have alread won huge amounts to qualify for even greater riches in what is after all only a game .