EUROPEAN TOUR TO UNVEIL WORLD'S RICHEST
TOURNAMENT AS NEW SEASON-ENDING
CLIMAX INSTEAD OF VOLVO MASTERS

By BERNIE McGUIRE
From the Daily Telegraph golf website
The European Tour will go back to a normal January to December schedule from 2009 but at the expense of the season-ending Volvo Masters.
The Tour will announce in Dubai on Monday a new-look playing schedule with a multi-million pound, limited-field tournament in the United Arab Emirates to round off the season.
The event in the oil-rich state will outstrip anything in terms of prize money offered anywhere in the world.
For three years, the European Tour season bizarrely has started in November, as was the scenario last week in Shanghai where the 2008 Order of Merit season commenced.
But from 2009 the Tour will go back to hosting a season that runs from January to December. The Dubai tournament will also become the new Tour Championship of the European Tour where just the top 60 players on the Order of Merit will compete.
It means that next year's 21st Volvo Masters celebration will be the last in its familiar format and, from 2009, the tournament will become just another tournament on the European Tour.