martes, 28 de octubre de 2008

Valderrama Volvo Masters: 9 days to go...



Superb 17th hole!!!



17th hole 2nd shoot

Valderrama tee 10: Harrington practice day

martes, 21 de octubre de 2008

Race to Dubai


The Race to Dubai will be a season-long competition on the European Tour, similar to the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup, culminating at the world’s richest golf tournament, the Dubai World Championship. It will replace The European Tour Order of Merit from 2009. Players will still be ranked according to their earnings from all events on The European Tour International Schedule. There is an additional bonus pool of $10,000,000 which will be awarded for the final top-15. The number one player will receive $2,000,000, the runner-up $1,500,000 and for third, $1,000,000. The 15th placed golfer will earn $250,000. The winner also receives a ten year European Tour exemption.
The top 60 players after the penultimate touranment will compete in the Dubai World Championship, to be staged at
Jumeirah Golf Estates.
The Race to Dubai will start in November 2008 (2009 season). From 2010, it is anticipated that it will commence in January.

martes, 7 de octubre de 2008

The Race to Dubai is ready to launch


The launch of The Race to Dubai at the HSBC Champions at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China, on November 6 heralds the start of the most momentous season in the history of The European Tour.
No fewer than 53 tournaments will be played on the inaugural Race to Dubai on The 38th European Tour International Schedule which will visit 26 destinations before reaching a thrilling crescendo with The Dubai World Championship at the Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai, UAE, from November 19-22, 2009.
The record number of tournaments is due in part to a minimum of two tournaments – the HSBC Champions and the UBS Hong Kong Open – each being played twice on The 2009 European Tour International Schedule.
In addition there are five ‘new’ tournaments – the Czech Golf Open, The English Open, the Canal + Open, the Volvo World Match Play Championship and The Dubai World Championship – on The 2009 European Tour International Schedule on which the New Zealand Open, the BMW Asian Open and the Volvo Masters will not feature.
Significantly the expanded season will enable The European Tour to arrange a calendar year programme in 2010 when The European Tour International Schedule will start with the South African Open on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at the Pearl Valley Golf Estates in the Western Cape and conclude with The Dubai World Championship at the landmark development of Jumeirah Golf Estates which will have four courses in total and 13 planned residential communities.
This schedule will see Leisurecorp, the Dubai World company specialising in developments and investments in the sport and leisure sector and with whom The European Tour have a wide-ranging partnership, host the start and finish of The 2010 European Tour International Schedule.
Leisurecorp have also acquired Turnberry on Scotland’s Ayrshire coast where The 138th Open Championship will be played in 2009 and which will, of course, feature on The European Tour Race to Dubai.
George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, said: “We are excited about the start of The Race to Dubai and the superb quality of the field for the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, with five of the top seven currently active players in the world all entered, provides ample evidence of the high drama and great theatre that lies ahead.
“The Race to Dubai will bring a new dimension to The European Tour and the partnership with Leisurecorp is central to our plans for the future so we are particularly delighted that three of their prestigious golf facilities are hosting competition in 2009, and that Pearl Valley Golf Estates and Jumeirah Golf Estates will start and finish the 2010 season.
“The 2009 European Tour International Schedule confirms how The European Tour has become ever-more global in its outlook with 26 destinations now featured with the Czech Golf Open returning for the first time in 12 years.”
The Czech Golf Open at Prosper Golf Resort, Čeladná, from July 30-August 2 is the first of the five ‘new’ tournaments to be played on The 2009 European Tour International Schedule. The others are The English Open, returning after an absence of seven years, at St Mellion International Resort, Cornwall; the inaugural Canal + Open; the Volvo World Match Play Championship at the new venue of Finca Cortesin Golf Club in Malaga, Spain; and The Dubai World Championship which concludes The Race to Dubai from November 19-22, 2009.
Other notable changes for 2009 include the Johnnie Walker Classic returning to The Vines Resort & Country Club, Perth, Western Australia, where it was last played in 2006; the Indonesia Open moving to the New Kuta Golf Club in Bali; The European Open occupying a new date between the BMW PGA Championship and The Celtic Manor Wales Open; and the SAS Masters returning, the week following The 138th Open Championship, to Barsebäck Golf & Country Club, Skåne, Sweden, where it has been played eight times in the past.
The Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre, Crans Montana, Switzerland, from September 3-6 will once more launch the start of the qualifying race for places in The European Team for The Ryder Cup which, in 2010, is being played on The Twenty Ten course at The Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, South Wales, from October 1-3.

European Tour 06-10-08

lunes, 29 de septiembre de 2008

RACE TO DUBAI- EUROPEAN GOLF TOUR


Amazing Sergio´s golf swing!

A new, exhilarating era in world golf will be launched on November 6, 2008, when The Race to Dubai – a season long competition on The European Tour International Schedule – begins with the first shot hit at the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, China.


Exactly 382 days later there is the mouth-watering prospect of one player earning a staggering US$ 3,666,660 with the last shot of the season when The Dubai World Championship unfolds on the Greg Norman-designed Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai, UAE, on November 19-22, 2009.


In between The Race to Dubai will take in 57 tournaments in 28 destinations with players from no fewer than 40 countries vying to be the first to face the most lucrative shot in golfing history.
That thrilling crescendo was conceived when The European Tour and Leisurecorp, the company developing Dubai’s leading residential golf community at Jumeirah Golf Estates, announced a wide-ranging five-year partnership.


The announcement was made, appropriately, in the Burj Al Arab hotel which towers 321 metres above the Persian Gulf in the dynamic city of Dubai – and the jewels in this Arabian crown are The Race to Dubai and The Dubai World Championship.


The Race to Dubai will offer a US$10,000,000 bonus pool from which the Number One player will receive not only US$2,000,000 but also the iconic Harry Vardon Trophy, first awarded in 1937 and won in recent times by Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Colin Montgomerie, Greg Norman, Ronan Rafferty, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Ian Woosnam, in addition to a ten year European Tour Card exemption.


All the world’s leading golfers will tee-up on The Race to Dubai and therefore hold the chance to qualify for The Dubai World Championship from which the champion will earn US$ 1,666,660 from the US$10,000,000 prize fund and a five year European Tour Card exemption.
In The Race to Dubai the players will be ranked according to their earnings from all events on The European Tour International Schedule including all European Tour events, the Major Championships and the World Golf Championships and the Number One to 60 players will qualify for The Dubai World Championship.


George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, said: “The Race to Dubai will take us on a wonderful week by week, tournament by tournament odyssey around the world – creating great drama and theatre for the spectators and generating immense global media coverage.
“Leisurecorp’s sponsorship is giving us great confidence for the future and it will bring a whole new dimension to The European Tour by significantly raising the bar for the players to exhibit their outstanding skills on the world stage.”


The comprehensive agreement between The European Tour and Leisurecorp will run initially for five years, with an option to extend for a further five years, and will also include significant support for selected European Tour events; funding of The European Tour’s Physio Truck; the construction of a new International Headquarters for The European Tour at Jumeirah Golf Estates; and the creation of a global property company in a joint initiative to develop new tournament venues around the world.