Tiger could be tempted by $20m pot in Dubai

UNTIL now, winning the Order of Merit on the European Tour could not be described as a pre-occupation for Tiger Woods. A member of the PGA Tour in America, where his appearances are also rationed, Woods has a phenomenal track record in European events.

Nevertheless, Tiger has never previously chosen to compete in the minimum of 11 tournaments on the Tour's schedule required to become eligible for membership.

Whether the world No1 will change his mind and consider becoming a European Tour member in 2009 so he can qualify to play in the Dubai World Championship, the new season-ending bonanza which carries a prize fund of $10million, as well as the Race To Dubai (formerly the Order of Merit) bonus pool of $10m, was one of the more intriguing questions raised by yesterday's money-spinning announcement about the world's richest golf tournament in the Gulf.

After years of watching Europe's best players jet across the Atlantic in search of gold on the PGA Tour, is it possible the Race to Dubai will reverse that trend? Certainly, bearing in mind that the top four players in the world this week are all Americans (Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker are the others), none of whom currently have membership in Europe, the Dubai World Championship may face a charge of hubris if the field for the tournament doesn't live up to its name.

If Woods does wish, two years from now, to tee up at a season-ending event to be held on one of the courses at the newly built Jumeirah golf estate, then he'll have an opportunity to pick up cheques for $3,666,660 should he win both the tournament and top the re-branded Order of Merit race. Bearing in mind there have only been two seasons since Tiger turned professional in 1996 when he wouldn't have been Europe's official No1 had he fulfilled the aforementioned membership obligation, it's reasonable to speculate he'd be the obvious favourite to benefit from the massive injection of extra funds to the Tour's coffers if he cares to play.

Although Tiger only played in nine events this season which counted on the European schedule - the Dubai Desert Classic, the HSBC Champions plus the four majors and three WGC tournaments - he still picked up far in excess of the money won by Justin Rose, the young Englishman who claimed the official title in 2007. Similarly in 2006, when he played in ten events, just one short of the number required for membership, Woods won more than double the amount earned by Padraig Harrington when he collected the Harry Vardon trophy.

Amazingly, in a professional career where he's started in 77 European Tour events, Woods has won 32 of those tournaments. It's a success rate just shy of one win from every two European competitions he's entered and helped the world's most successful sportsman bank more than $51m in prize money.

A regular attender at the Desert Classic in the early part of the season, where he picks up an appearance fee of $3m, the relationship between Woods and Dubai was cemented when the Gulf state commissioned the world No1 to design his first golf course there. Work has already begun on the multi-million dollar project and Tiger has completed plans for three of the holes.

Not that the Tour plan to get out the begging bowl for any player. When asked at yesterday's press conference about the feasibility of attracting the world's best golfers to the new event and perhaps dropping the number of required events for membership, George O'Grady, the chief executive of the European Tour, replied: "There is absolutely no way it will be dropped from 11. If I ever put that to the tournament committee I think I would get lynched. Quite a lot of our players think we should raise the number and that is being discussed by the committee in January. This isn't all about Tiger Woods."

Interestingly, the sponsors say they are at ease with this arrangement. David Spencer, chief executive of Leisurecorp, added: "We set out to create an event that was bigger than any one individual and that the world would stand up and take notice of. We went into this venture with our eyes open.

"In the fortunate times I have met Tiger he is a very smart individual and we hold him in the highest esteem not only as a golfer, but as a person."

Although the European Tour have no plans to change their name, the construction of new headquarters in Dubai (their administration, however, will remain at Wentworth) underlines the evolving international status of the organisation. Now that the PGA Tour wraps up business in September - Woods collected in excess of $11million, incidentally, after winning the Tour Championship and topping the FedEx Cup standings earlier this autumn - there's an opportunity in October and November to expand the appeal of the European Tour and capitalise on the attraction of offering increased prize money.

These are lucrative times to be a top golfer. No matter the riches dangled in front of the players, however, the majors are still the soul of the game.

While it remains to be seen whether or not Woods will include the Dubai World Championship on his schedule, the one event on the European Tour which Tiger is certain to enter in 2009 is the Open championship at Turnberry.