It's a big deal for golf in Dubai

Dubai: The man who wins the inaugural Dubai World Championship, which is to take place at the Jumeirah Golf Estates from Nov 19-22, 2009, could make off with a cool £1.8 million (Dh13.68m).

Aside from a winner's cheque of £800,000 (Dh6,080,000) from a £4.9 million prize-fund, which will make the championship the richest individual tournament in the game, he could also bag the top prize of £975,000 from a bonus pool worth another £4.9 million.

Some 37 years after golf was first played in the region and 18 years after the first of the Dubai Desert Classics, the company are out to make Dubai the hub of the golfing world.

Hardly surprising

After next year, the European Tour's Order of Merit will give way to a 'Race to Dubai', from which the top 50 will qualify for the Dubai World Championship.

Hardly surprisingly, the latter is being hailed as "the most exciting tournament" in golf - even though there is no word at the moment of Tiger Woods, the World No 1, being involved. Not too many doubt that Woods will be there on the day, but for the moment the rules are such that he would not be eligible.

He could presumably find the £250 it would take to join the European Tour, but he could struggle to add the extra tournaments he would need to bring his minimum number of European Tour-sanctioned events to the requisite 11.

This year he was only two away, after playing in the four majors, the four World Golf Championships events and the Dubai Desert Classic. However, no one watches his schedule more closely than Woods.

In aiming his game at the majors, he plays far fewer tournaments than most. "Even without Tiger it's going to be tremendously exciting," said George O'Grady, the Chief Executive of the European Tour, who recalled how Woods's management group once inquired about their player joining the Tour.

"Tiger may be the No.1 today, but this is about growing the European Tour and, hopefully, developing our own Tiger."

"It's a long-term partnership which will see the European Tour and Dubai joining together significantly to enhance the game worldwide," said O'Grady.

The executive explained that he spoke to Volvo, who will host their last end-of-season event next year, and other regular tournament sponsors last Friday about the new moves. He said they were all happy with what is afoot, though you would have to suspect that there could yet be trouble from those events which are backed by their local tourist boards.