Richest prize in golf history to be decided on Greg Norman course |
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The Jumeriah Golf Estates, a development project in Dubai that will feature 13 luxury residential communities accommodating over 1,000 families and will offer four golf courses, will host the inaugural Dubai World Championship on Greg Norman's Earth design. Earth is joined by Fire, Water and Wind in a lineup that reminds me of the Saturday morning cartoon Captain Planet. Norman is the featured designer or co-designer on three of the four courses. Other architects associated with the project include Pete Dye and Vijay Singh. The Dubai World Championship is the new finale on the European PGA Tour and will offer an overall purse of $10 million, the richest in all of golf surpassing the $9 million offered at the PGA TOUR's PLAYERS Championship. The event will conclude the European Tour starting in November of 2009. The winner's share of the prize money is expected to be in the neighborhood of $ 1.6 million. The title of Race to Dubai will now replace the European Tour Order of Merit and will comprise all events on The European Tour International Schedule, including all European Tour tournaments, the Major Championships and World Golf Championships. There will be no cut in the event and will consist of the top 60 players in the Race to Dubai standings. In my opinion, it's only a matter of time until a WGC event is played in Dubai. While the country aspires to world domination, the PGA TOUR should take advantage and move one of the events that will soon lose its sponsorship to Dubai as well. I mean as long as they are giving money away, right? Don't be surprised if Tiger Woods makes an unexpected jump to the European Tour for 2009. It might quicken the pace in his quest to become the first billion dollar athlete. He might even be able to convince the Sultan of Dubai to start the Tiger Woods Tour of Dubai where Tiger plays golf there year-round and collects a hefty appearance fee every week. |
