The European Tour's first Race to Dubai season was announced this past weekend at Turnberry by Chief Executive George O'Grady.  The new schedule has 53 events in 26 countries.  (It is curious that the European Tour logo features the name of a city not within even Sarah Palin viewing distance of the continent.)

Anyway, the British journalists are already analyzing the scheudle and claiming with glee that the European Tour may soon be the Tour of choice for the world's best players.

Alastair Tait - not in the crowd of journos who I will mercilessly mock - has some of the details on the changes and vagueries of the new schedule.

New events include the Czech Golf Open, English Open, Canal + Open, Volvo World Match Play and the Dubai World Championship. The Dubai event concludes the inaugural “Race to Dubai” and includes a $10 million bonus pool for the top 15 players on the money list.

Eleven tournaments on the ‘09 schedule include the letters TBA, signifying that venues have not been signed up for these tournaments. However, O’Grady expected announcements on venues to be made shortly.

Tait also quotes O'Grady and Tour brass as saying that 53 events would be a minimum for the Euro Tour in 2010.  I think that's probably blowing smoke since BMW bailed as sponsor of the Asian Open, and they and Mercedes are rumored to be wanting to part from their current level of golf sponsorship.

Meanwhile, John Huggan could seriously not be happier or more partisan in his analysis.  Given that its at Golf Observer - which does not purport to analyze impartially (then again, neither does any Brit rag) - this is Huggan's chance to just go off on Tim Finchem.

Here's the opening paragraph and you can use that to decide if you want to read the rest based on your personal opinions:

The view, as always, was lovely and almost endlessly distracting. But looking out from the Turnberry Hotel across the Firth of Clyde to the Isle of Arran and the great rock that is Ailsa Craig it was still possible, if one listened carefully, to make out a strange noise. 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.

But, it takes no time at all for Huggan to get the facts wrong.

Starting in China on November 6, the inaugural Race for Dubai will take in 53 events, 25 countries and five continents. Even in what O’Grady labelled “a transition season,” those are pretty spectacular numbers, especially when one adds on the opportunity to win an eight-figure sum in the final event.

The country count is wrong and a player would actually not make eight figures ($10M or more) in the Dubai World Championship.  The total amount that could possibly be won is about $6.5 million less than that figure.

I will leave the rest to you if you want to read it.  But, don't get me wrong - I love making cracks at Tim Finchem, Carolyn Bivens, or any other seemingly-aloof golf executive.  Still, for Huggan to purport that the PGA Tour is on shaky ground as a result of this is seriously hilarious. 

Really, only a few things have changed.

There is a potential $3.6M payday for one event on the schedule.

World stars that aren't currently European Tour members will have to play in five events unique to the Tour to qualify for membership.  Most will choose the HSBC Champions (which is on the schedule twice next season), Volvo World Match Play, Barclays Scottish Open, and Dubai Desert Classic.  La di da.

In effect, really only two or three events that are not already marquee events will be helped.  On the PGA Tour side, only two or three events that already stink will be worsened.  That's not that big of a shift.

But, I would urge Huggan and crew to beware of the curse of putting your eggs in one basket.  Just like the PGA Tour has done so with the financial services industry that is currently in ruin, the European Tour is doing so with Arab real estate and oil money.  And in case you have been too busy worrying about your 401(k) to notice, oil is about to dip below $85 this week.  With an impending global economic slow down (maybe even recession), the global real estate market - including golf properties - may crash with it.