Is This A Different Dubai? - Birdies and Bogeys
Friday 7th December 2007
By Roderick Easdale
Is it me, or is “The Race to Dubai” just re-inventing the wheel?
Isn't the Race to Dubai just the old Order of Merit, but with a different name and The Dubai World Championship the old Volvo Masters with a new name and put in a non-European location?
What's changed? The Order of Merit was competed for over the season, and the winner was declared after the Volvo Masters, an event to which the top 60 in the order of merit qualified. The Race to Dubai will be competed over the season, and the top 60 will qualify for the Dubai World Championship, at the end of which the season's points earned by each player is totted up… and the winner of the Order of Merit, oooops, sorry the Race To Dubai (should it be the Race From Dubai at that stage?) is announced.
The main thrust of the announcement seems to be... count the money folks! All $10m of it. But why should we spectators and followers count the money, what's it got to do with us? And anyway, will the DWC be the richest event in golf when its actually end? The Player's Championship currently offers a purse of $9m. What's the betting it increases its prize money a touch… by just over a million dollars perhaps?
