Dubai: The Omega Dubai Ladies Masters will continue to be the Ladies European Tour’s (LET) season-ending event up until 2017, following the announcement of a three-year contract renewal with event organisers Golf in Dubai on Friday.
The agreement will see the nine-year-old event run until its 12th edition at Emirates Golf Club, with the option to extend again.
LET chief executive officer Ivan Khodabakhsh welcomed the renewal, spoke of the need to continue to develop grassroots golf locally and hinted at a possible increase on the current €500,000 (Dh 2.3 million) prize fund.
“We have been here nine years, but our vision is to be more than just a tournament that comes here once a year,” he said. “We want to have a partnership year-round.
“We are here to develop women’s golf and we hope that our players, especially the young players, can inspire a new generation of players to take up the game.
“We are here for the long run and this agreement for an additional three years is a testament to that. We couldn’t ask for a better partner here with us, so we are most happy to sign this agreement, with the prize fund one day increasing.”
Golf in Dubai vice chairman and CEO Mohammad Juma Bu Amim said increasing the event’s prize fund was on his agenda.
“We will not hesitate to increase the prize fund when the time is right for us economically,” he said. “Remember we have two tournaments [this and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic] and we have so many other activities and assets we are now working with.
“We are trying to spread our finances as best as possible so we can benefit all the other things we do. The Mena Golf Tour [regional development series] is very important for us also and I’m sure the LET understand that as well. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be looking to increase, because it’s good for the tournament.”
With the LET keen to leave a legacy on the region, Khodabakhsh said his team will do all they can to continue to develop the game locally.
“We don’t want to have just one tournament here,” he said. “If there are enough good amateur players, we are most happy to work on that. We have our own development tour, the LET Access Series, and we would like to deploy that in more places.”
