Brand Dubai’s golfing coup

There will also be a rebranding of the European Tour’s “Order of Merit” which from 2009 will be called the “Race to Dubai”. But whilst these innovations will certainly enhance Dubai’s global image, as well as making some golfing millionaires even richer, their impact on the world game will be negligible.

Pro golf always for sale

There has always been the opportunity for those with money, unusually corporate brands, to create or buy a professional golf tournament for commercial reasons. Back in 1981 in Sun City in South Africa Johnny Miller won the inaugural “Sun City Challenge” with a first prize of $500,000 - in the same year the winner of the most prestigious Major, “The Open Championship”, received a prize of just $50,000.

Over the next few years the biggest prize in world golf, by far, was at this South African event and many of golf’s big names had some rich pay days taking part. From 2000-2003 the first prize was a cool $2m, but even this was not enough to tempt Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson or many others from the PGA tour.

What had happened over the 20 years since the first Sun City even was that the prize money at regular tournaments had risen enormously. Padraig Harrington, winner of “The Open” this year, took home around $1.5m and the other Majors had similar prizes. So whilst the new Dubai tournament certainly has a mouth watering first prize ($1.67m) it is not so far ahead of the best of the rest.

PGA Tour remains the big draw

In order to compete in the “Dubai World Championship” a player must finish in the top 60 of what we currently call the Order of Merit. This means that a player must, of course, be a member of the European Tour - playing at least 11 tour events.

This will exclude all of the golfers who concentrate on the (American) PGA Tour – virtually all Americans and most of the remaining top professionals who play in the United States such as VJ Singh, KJ Choi, Rory Sabbatini, Aaron Baddeley, Adam Scott, and Geoff Ogilvy etc.

Commenting on the new sponsorship of the European Tour and the new tournament the boss of the PGA Tour, Tim Finchem, said rather delphically that the development would “reduce the clamour that because purses on the PGA Tour are high somehow the quality of golf is suffering”.

I think what he means is that some contend that the quality of golf outside the US is suffering because there isn’t enough prize money – a doubtful assertion. But it is certainly true that the PGA Tour is, and will remain, golf’s big money spinner and it is highly unlikely that the Dubai sponsorship will affect this at all – ambitious young golfers from around the world will continue to be drawn to America.

“Desert Classic” the better tournament

Notwithstanding the hype over the new “Dubai World Championship”, ironically it is likely that the long established “Dubai Desert Classic” will remain the more interesting tournament. For many years the Classic has been enriched as a competition and a spectacle by the presence of a few non European Tour players – notably Tiger Woods.

If this continues, and there is no reason to assume that it won’t, then the field at the Classic will be rather better than that an event which is strictly restricted to European Tour members alone.

The order of things in professional golf has remained unchanged for decades – notwithstanding the fact that golf is now genuinely a world game. Certainly prize money has escalated to extraordinary levels and the European Tour plays some off season events outside Europe.

But world professional golf continues to be dominated by the US and to a lesser extent by Europe, and there is hardly any coordination between the two main tours. Few Americans play outside of the US and they are joined on the PGA Tour by many of the top golfers from around the world. Three of the four “Majors” are played in America - and that is an anachronism that is also unlikely to change.

Formula one, amongst other sports, has shown that a sport can have a hard-nosed commercial objective, but still be genuinely global in scope if an organisation is in place to manage it internationally - and if the will to do this is there.

Golf, on the other hand, has fragmented management with little or no cooperation between the various golfing bodies. It is a sport without proper international governance and, consequently, even without a world champion! So whilst the new Dubai tournament, and the linked funding of the Order of Merit, will add some riches to the game in Europe unless and until there is the establishment of a proper world governing body and the creation of a global tournament structure nothing much will really change.

See also:
Golf needs a winning Ernie Els
Monty wins World Cup for Scotland