Golf’s European Tour eyes further Gulf growth as prize funds attract top players

Sunday was the culmination of 42 tournaments across 23 countries, including three in Dubai – the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in January, the AVIV Dubai Championship earlier this month, and the grand finale DP World Tour Championship.

Overall there were six tournaments held in the region and the Tour will be back in the Middle East at the start of next year for five consecutive weeks, including back-to-back Rolex Series events with the addition of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

While Dubai-based DP World is to become the title sponsor of golf’s European Tour with record-breaking prize money revealed for the upcoming 2022 campaign.

The new look DP World Tour will see total prize money break through the $200 million mark for the first time, with a new minimum prize fund of $2m for all tournaments solely sanctioned by the DP World Tour.

While the 2022 DP World Tour Championship – the season finale and final Rolex Series tournament of the year – will have a $10m prize pot, the first European Tour event in history outside the Majors and WGCs to feature an eight-figure prize fund.

In an exclusive interview with Arabian Business, Keith Pelley, chief executive, the European Tour group, reveals the continued importance of the region and why it is a firm favourite with fans and organisers alike.

How important is the Middle East to the European Tour?

The European Tour has been playing tournaments in the Middle East since 1989 so we have a long-established presence in the region as well as several strong, long-term partnerships.

The Middle East enables us to play at a time of year when it is not possible to stage events in Europe due to the weather, so it has been a very important region in terms of the development of the European Tour, but equally since that first Dubai Desert Classic 32 years ago, the European Tour has played a hugely significant role in putting golf in the Middle East on the global map. So it truly benefits both sides.

We always play on first class courses and we receive terrific hospitality, so the players all enjoy the traditional start and end of year swings in the Middle East which have now become fixtures in our schedules.

Of course our 2022 season, starting in just a few weeks, will further strengthen our links to the region when the European Tour Group’s flagship Tour rebrands as the DP World Tour – following the signing of a long-term title partnership agreement with the global Dubai based logistics company.

DP World have been one of our closest partners for over a decade, and together this partnership will elevate the Tour in every way, and further cement the Middle East as a core part of the golf’s global ecosystem.

Can this be quantified in terms of numbers – monetary and through participation, viewing stats?

The Middle East is becoming increasingly important to our Tour and in 2021 25 percent of our total prize fund came from tournaments held in the region. This is up from 14 percent five years ago.

In terms of spectator numbers, the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai normally attracts around 65,000 spectators – although this was reduced in 2020 due to local Covid-19 restrictions. The Middle Eastern tournaments are popular with TV viewers as well – Sky Sports’ UK TV audience for the European Tour’s Middle Eastern events are up c30 percent since 2016.

Golf is also becoming increasingly popular in the region, fuelled significantly by the Tour’s presence there, with 388,966 rounds played annually. There are 124 courses in the Middle East region, and the golf industry in Dubai has an annual turnover of AED975 million.

When and where was the first tournament, who won, what was the prize money?

The first tournament was held in 1989 at the Emirates Golf Club. Mark James captured the inaugural event, beating Peter O’Malley in a play-off. The prize fund was EUR251,708 ($293,623).

How many tournaments are operated today in the Middle East?

We held a total of six events in the Middle East in 2021 – and this is expanding for 2022. The European Tour will visit Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates for the first time next year when the inaugural Ras Al Khaimah Championship, presented by Phoenix Capita,l is played at Al Hamra Golf Club from February 3-6.

The $2million tournament will be the third of five consecutive events in the Tour’s ground-breaking early season ‘Middle East Swing’, following back-to-back Rolex Series events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and preceding the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and one other tournament in the region, which will be announced in due course.

We will then close the season once again with tournaments in the Middle East.

In terms of sponsorship, how important is the Middle East region?

Two of our flagship Tour sponsors, DP World and Emirates, are headquartered in the Middle East and have been long-term partners for over a decade. With DP World now becoming the title partner of our main Tour from 2022 onwards, the Middle East has become even more prominent within our commercial family.

As a business, we continue to expand our portfolio of partners and the Middle East remains an attractive region in this respect. In Emirates and DP World, we have partners who have enjoyed strong commercial returns from their association with the European Tour and are proud advocates of what we have achieved together.

Golf has played an important role in turning the Middle East into an attractive tourism destination and business hub.

Where are the areas of growth for the tour in the Middle East?

One of our successes in the Middle East, and indeed around the world as golf’s global Tour, has been taking the game to new territories. We have been in Dubai since 1989 and we now have three tournaments there, including our season finale, but we have also helped develop golf more widely across the region over the last four decades.

We have played in Qatar since 1996 and Abu Dhabi since 2006, while more recently we have taken the game to Oman, having previously played in Bahrain too. Next year we will also visit a new emirate in Ras Al Khaimah, while our Legends and Challenge Tour have also played in Jordan along with the LET, so the European Tour has shown a deep commitment to golf across the Middle East over a long period now.

So we feel there are still opportunities to continue expanding our footprint in the region.

Where are the challenges/opportunities?

Our recently announced strategic alliances with the PGA TOUR and Sunshine Tour provide an excellent opportunity for us. We are starting to see co-sanctioned tournaments with the PGA TOUR for example – with three of these confirmed for 2022 (The Genesis Scottish Open, and the Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship in the USA). We can expect further alignment between golf’s two leading professional tours in the months and years ahead.

Over the last 18 months we have also added a significant number of new partners, all of which means our business is now more financially robust than ever before, even surpassing pre-pandemic levels. So there have been so many positives to emerge from what was without doubt the most challenging situation most of us have faced professionally, and I am also energised by what lies ahead too.

But of course the pandemic, and its implications, are far from over – it’s nearly impossible to follow the news right now without hearing about supply shortages, shipping delays, port congestion, and myriad other supply chain challenges – with the pandemic a major cause of this disruption.

This year, more than ever, we’ve witnessed first-hand the interconnectedness of the global commerce system. Sport has been and continues to be impacted, and the Tour operates a very complex logistics operation. So, to have one of the world’s leading supply chain solutions experts in DP World by our side as a strategic partner will be invaluable for us going forwards – a title partnership like this has never been so relevant.