Since the Tiger effect caused PGA Tour purses to boom, golfers from around the world have flocked to American soil to get a little taste of the green. For the first time since Tiger Woods hit the scene in 1996, golfers might be leaving the states, at least more than usual, to try their hand in the European version of the FedEx Cup.
Starting next season, the European Tour's Order of Merit, the fancy name for money list, will be renamed the Race to Dubai and will conclude in, you guessed it, Dubai at the Dubai World Championships. The amount of money to the winner has already grabbed the attention of such elite names as Adam Scott and Vijay Singh and could even snag American Phil Mickelson. To qualify, a player will have to compete in 11 European Tour sanctioned events.
"I plan to play 11 and if I qualify for Dubai, I'm obviously going to play that as well," said the 45-year-old from Fiji, who won the first two play-off events before finishing equal 44th behind winner Camilo Villegas at the BMW Championship in St Louis.Obviously, this spells doom for a FedEx Cup system that hasn't necessarily taken off like they'd hoped. The Cup will have to be revamped before next season so someone like Singh can't win the thing by the third tournament, making the Tour Championship a moot point unless Singh came down with an illness that wouldn't allow him to walk 72 holes.
Singh is already a European Tour member but he played in only eight events last year, and has made only eight so far this year, so the lure of the Race to Dubai seems to be proving the attraction the tour was hoping for.
The winner of the Dubai World Championship, coined the world's richest golf tournament, will not only receive $1,666,660 but will land $2 million more as part of a $10 million bonus distributed to the final top-15 on the Race to Dubai list.
The PGA Tour better watch out. As much as we all love Tiger, when he comes back, with his interests in Dubai close at heart, you're telling me he won't be a part of this thing? Woods has always chased the buck whenever he could, and this looks like another chance to do it with bigger interests in mind.
