New European Tour Finale

Rumour has it that the European Tour plans a sucessor of Valderrama as season-ending event. Apparently, Dubai throws in some 14 Mio. Euros as prize money for a season-ending tournament. This might help the European Tour winning some players back from the PGA Tour. Let’s see if it helps.

Edit: The press release is out:

The partnership will run initially for five years, with an option to extend for a further five years, and will include the creation of the end-of-season Dubai World Championship; an additional annual US$10,000,000 Bonus Pool; significant support for selected European Tour events; funding of The European Tour’s Physio Truck; the construction of a new International Headquarters for The European Tour at Jumeirah Golf Estates; and the creation of a global property company, in a joint initiative with Leisurecorp, to develop new tournament venues around the world.

The inaugural Dubai World Championship will take place from 19-22 November, 2009, on either the Fire or Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, UAE, with the winner earning US$1,666,660 from the US$10,000,000 prize fund.

Somebody waved with a very big check here!

Edit II: please also see Geoff Shackelford’s thoughts on the matter.