A new, exhilarating era in world golf will be launched on November 6, 2008, when The Race to Dubai – a season long competition on The European Tour International Schedule – begins with the first shot hit on Thursday at the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, China.

Exactly 382 days later there is the mouth-watering prospect of one player earning a staggering US$ 3,666,660 with the last shot of the season when the Dubai World Championship unfolds on the Greg Norman-designed Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai, UAE, on November 19-22, 2009.

In between The Race to Dubai will take in 53 tournaments in 27 destinations with players from no fewer than 40 countries vying to be the first to face the most lucrative shot in golfing history.

That thrilling crescendo was conceived when The European Tour and Leisurecorp, the company developing Dubai’s leading residential golf community at Jumeirah Golf Estates, announced a wide-ranging five-year partnership.

 

The Race to Dubai will offer a US$10,000,000 bonus pool from which the Number One player will receive not only US$2,000,000 but also the iconic Harry Vardon Trophy, first awarded in 1937 and won in recent times by Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Colin Montgomerie, Greg Norman, Ronan Rafferty, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Ian Woosnam, in addition to a seven year European Tour Card exemption.

All the world’s leading golfers will tee-up on The Race to Dubai and therefore hold the chance to qualify for the Dubai World Championship from which the champion will earn US$ 1,666,660 from the US$10,000,000 prize fund and a five year European Tour Card exemption.

In The Race to Dubai the players will be ranked according to their earnings from all events on The European Tour International Schedule including all European Tour events, the Major Championships and the World Golf Championships and the Number One to 60 players will qualify for the Dubai World Championship.

George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, said: “The Race to Dubai will take us on a wonderful week by week, tournament by tournament odyssey around the world – creating great drama and theatre for the spectators and generating immense global media coverage. “Leisurecorp’s sponsorship is giving us great confidence for the future and it will bring a whole new dimension to The European Tour by significantly raising the bar for the players to exhibit their outstanding skills on the world stage.”

 

Stormy will start his Race to Dubai compaign shortly as he is yet to confirm his 2009 schedule but he is very much looking forward to this fantastic opportunity and the incredible drama of the whole event.