Race to Dubai--a threat?

For the second year in a row, the FedEx Cup was a disappointment, and there is already talk that the inaugural Race to Dubai--a year long points race on the European Tour--will be seen as serious competition.  Jim Moriaty wrote in the October 3 edition of Golf World:

It's only a matter of time before PGA Tour players follow the money--and that time could be now.

The European Tour announced earlier today that in order to be a member, a player has to compete in 12 events.  This means that the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will only have to play in approximately five more events outside of the country in order to qualify for the Race (counting the four majors, and three WGC events).  John Huggan takes this perspective on the Golf Observer:

As George O’Grady of the European Tour and David Spencer of Leisurecorp outlined their plans for the upcoming “Race to Dubai” that will climax with the multi-multi-million dollar “Dubai World Championship” next November, even the hard of hearing could discern the distant knocking of Tim Finchem’s knees.

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Never mind the present economic crisis, problems for the PGA Tour continue to mount. Having given up what he saw as a losing battle with the media and ratings juggernaut that is the NFL and virtually surrendered two months of the calendar year when he came up with the nonsense that is the Fed-Ex Cup (or ‘Finchem’s Folly” as some like to call it), the PGA Tour’s biggest cheese has surely watched with growing trepidation at the plan devised by the European Tour and its Arab partners, one with the potential to do much long-term damage to his organisation’s current pre-eminence.

Time will tell what happens between the two budding systems.  My bet is that this will not have a big impact on the PGA Tour.  Some of the bigger European players like Justin Rose and Ian Poulter might choose to play more in Europe because of this, but the big draws like Woods and Mickelson will make the American tour their number one priority.