European Tour fights back with €14m event

The European Tour is poised to release details of the richest golf tournament in the world later today with Dubai set to host a €14m season-ending event from 2009.

A prize fund of €7m will be put aside for the limited-field event itself with another €7m divided among the highest-ranked players as the race for the Order of Merit is elevated to a new level at the Emirates Golf Club.

World number five Ernie Els has described the prize money as “absurd” but the event is the European Tour’s response to the increasing number of players who are choosing to play more on the more lucrative PGA Tour, whose season-ending FedEx Cup event offers a $10m (€6.8m) annuity bonus to the winner.

It will also reinvigorate the European Tour’s Order of Merit, which has traditionally ended with a grand finale at the Volvo Masters at Valderrama in November but was marred this year by the absence of Els.

The South African, who was leading the money race prior to the event, missed out having been contracted to appear in the Singapore Open on the same date and then saw England’s Justin Rose snatch his title to become European number one.