Dubai World Championship to have record 1st prize

EUROPEAN TOUR ORDER OF MERIT WILL
BECOME THE RACE TO DUBAI

FROM TODAY'S EUROPEAN TOUR PRESS CONFERENCE IN DUBAI

DAVID SPENCER: At the end of 2008, The European Tour Order of Merit will be named The Race to Dubai, and that's a very apt name. The top 60 players over the season who qualify on The European Tour Race to Dubai will be coming here to Dubai to hit the first balls on November the 19th, 2009 to play in the first Dubai World Championship, and to play in the first Race to Dubai.
You can see the prize fund here at the world championship, players numbered 1 to 60, a $10 million prize purse, the largest in world golf; $1.66 million for the winner and a five‑year exemption. So that gives you some of the background of the Dubai World Championship, and we'll move onto our next slide which describes the Race to Dubai.
It's a new season‑long competition, as we mentioned. The No. 1 player will receive US$2,000,000 and then the top 15 players will split another US$10,000,000 in the Race to Dubai.
The winner of The Race to Dubai will receive a ten‑year exemption to the Tour, so it's an amazingly exciting competition, and will all culminate on November 19th for its first year, the first of many, many years to come at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
GEORGE O'GRADY: I guess this is our bit, the international headquarters. A purpose‑built facility; as we state, it includes the Centre of Excellence I referred to.
Already quite a number of European Tour players have homes in Dubai because it gives them the centre from where they can travel. It gives them perfect conditions in the winter. The golf course I think is going to be ‑‑ we'll come on to that in a minute in how it's being developed. It's really a central venue, not just for the players, our sponsors, our promoters, our TV companies, and possibly our course design company as we go into the future.
I think it's everything a growing tour and a global business ‑‑ I was asked at the Volvo Masters about the state of the Volvo, as it was, Order of Merit and now it's just the Order of Merit. I think the Volvo Tour, which was 20 years ago, united Europe in a geographical basis. I think this Race to Dubai now unites us on a global basis.