Is This A Different Dubai? - Birdies and Bogeys

Is the Race to Dubai merely a rebranding of the order of merit? Golf Monthly discusses in another edition of Birdies and Bogeys.

Roderick Easdale
By
published

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?

Roderick Easdale
Roderick Easdale

Contributing Writer Roderick is the author of the critically acclaimed comic golf novel, Summer At Tangents. Golf courses and travel are Roderick’s particular interests. He writes travel articles and general features for the magazine, travel supplement and website. He also compiles the magazine's crossword. He is a member of Trevose Golf & Country Club and has played golf in around two dozen countries. Cricket is his other main sporting love. He is also the author of five non-fiction books, four of which are still in print: The Novel Life of PG Wodehouse; The Don: Beyond Boundaries; Wally Hammond: Gentleman & Player and England’s Greatest Post-War All Rounder.

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