European Tour Chief Executive George O’Grady was invited by the Daily Telegraph newspaper to pen his thoughts on a new global era for golf.
It is appropriate that this weekend’s Volvo Masters – the 21st edition of The European Tour’s season ending tournament – provides the opportunity to reflect on an era of substantial growth in golf and an era that galvanised The Tour on the European stage.
We came to Valderrama, which, at the first Volvo Masters in 1988 was the undisputed number one golf course on the continent of Europe, just a few months after Seve Ballesteros had won his third Open Championship.
Seve, who inspired our other great Major Champions, contributed enormously to the unification of The Tour throughout Europe. The past 20 years have borne witness to outstanding levels of growth in golf. We feel that now is the time to truly embrace the ever-increasing global nature of our sport.
The Race to Dubai, which begins next week at the HSBC Champions tournament, in Shanghai, China, will replace The European Tour Order of Merit. This will bring The Tour cohesion and focus – but now on a global stage.
The season-long Race to Dubai, which carries a bonus pool of US$ 10 million, will culminate with the Dubai World Championship in November 2009, which itself has a prize fund of US$ 10 million. The impact of this financial injection will provide greater visibility to everyone connected to The European Tour: the players; promoters; sponsors; television companies and spectators.
The ambition of Leisurecorp, our partners in The Race to Dubai and The Dubai World Championship, to develop the best new golf courses in the world with architects such as Sergio Garcia and Greg Norman, Vijay Singh and Pete Dye, as they are doing at Jumeirah Golf Estates, the home of The Dubai World Golf Championship, makes the Dubai-based company an ideal partner for The European Tour as we move into the future. Norman, who was, in his prime, the World Number One for 331 weeks, has been a great ally in developing this concept on a truly global scale.
We are changing our brand image to reflect Harry Vardon’s status as golf’s first touring professional. As Vardon himself once said: “Golf is now the game of all nations – and it deserves to be.”
