Dubai World Championship-Race to Dubai Nov 2009

This year’s European Tour will end in November 2009 at The Earth Course at the Jumeirah Golf Estates.This is the much publicized Race to Dubai. The Race To Dubai, or to use its official title, the Dubai World Championship will be contested by 60 golfers. They will play for a total of $10 million while a further $10 million will be shared between the top 15 European Tour players. This will replace the Order of Merit prize money. The European Tour have been promoting the Race To Dubai as a new prestigious event and will take place 19-22 November 2009.To buy tickets for this event

Today top golfers Sergio Garcia, Robert Karlsson, Justin Rose, Darren Clarke, and Martin Kaymer as well as UAE's Khalid Yousuf met at The Earth Course and played the last four holes of the new golf course.The Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates was designed by Greg Norman and no one will be competing on The Earth course until the inaugural Dubai World Championship begins in November in order to preserve it for the ultimate test of the world's finest golfers.

The bad news is that a Race to Dubai requirement is that competing players must take full European Tour membership and Tiger Woods has declined to do this.Full European Tour membership requires a minimum 12 event participation.

I have no idea why this is a requirement but if the Dubai World Championship wants to attract all the best golfers it is going to have to make the rules easier or raise the prize money.

2009 European Tour

53 event schedule for 2009
Last event at the Dubai World Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates
The "Road to Dubai" has events in 26 venues, starting this November with the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai.
Five tournaments are added to the 2009 schedule but the New Zealand and Asian Opens and Volvo Masters are not included.
The events will be spread out over a 13-month period starting at the end of 2008, with the HSBC Champions event and the UBS Hong Kong Open being staged twice at either end of the Tour.
And BBC Golf correspondent Iain Carter has warned 10 of the events on the 2009 schedule have yet to be confirmed - nine of them in Europe.

Some more interesting info on the European Tour

The European Tour is the primary golf tour in Europe and is second to the U.S. based PGA TOUR in worldwide prestige.
The European-based events on the European Tour are nearly all played in Western Europe and the most lucrative of them take place in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France and Spain. Of the events held in Europe, only one, the Cadillac Russian Open, takes place east of the former Iron Curtain.

In 2008,Florida based Hong Kong amateur, Jason Hak became the youngest player ever to make the cut in a European Tour event, at 14 years and 304 days, breaking the record set by Sergio Garcia at the Turespana Open Mediterrania in 1995.The record was broken by 104 days.

In 1972 the European Tour was won by Peter Oosterhuis from England and his earnings was £10,480.00 and in 2007 was won by Justin Rose from England and his earnings was £2 944 945.00.

Between 1971 and 2007 the following countries produced these leading players:

Australia- Wins 2 -1 player Greg Norman (the designer of The Earth Course)
England-8 wins-4 players (Peter Oosterhuis 4x and Nick Faldo 2x)
Ireland-2 wins-2 players
Scotland-10 wins-2 players (Colin Montgomerie 8x and Sandy Lyle 2x)
South Africa-5 wins-3 players (Ernie Els 2x)
Spain-6 wins-1 player (Seve Ballesteros 6x)
Wales-2 wins-1 player (Ian Woosnam 2x)
Germany-2 wins-1 player (Bernhard Langer 2x)