Watching a lot of left-leaning political coverage lately, you would hear the phrase "kitchen sink" a lot.  Whether you believe the McCain campaign is doing that or not, a litany of British golf journalists are of the mind that the European Tour is on the verge of crushing the PGA Tour and America.  Ok, maybe just the PGA Tour.

Anyway, apparently, I'm not alone in my quest to debunk this myth.  Thanks to Geoff Shackelford for the link to Neil Squires' piece in the Daily Express.  Squires brings up some critical quotes from the folks at Leisurecorp - the Dubai-based company making this whole thing possible.

The billionaire backers behind the European Tour’s Race to Dubai are considering everything from floodlit tournaments and new team events to numbers on the back of shirts as part of their drive to make the sport more relevant to the next generation.

They hope their revolutionary outlook – as well as their money – will entice exciting American-based players like Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas to play in Europe in future and a younger audience to follow them.

There is a price to pay for accepting £50 million of oil money and the European Tour’s decision to get into bed with Leisurecorp, the sporting arm of the Dubai government, could well have ramifications beyond merely side-stepping the credit crunch.

And just to show that Leisurecorp is sensitive and aware of the nearly half of a millennium of golf history, CEO of Leisurecorp David Spencer said this:

Our ambition is not necessarily to change the format of golf but to enhance it and make it more relevant to the next generation.  It is all becoming a bit old hat – there have to be new things to make it more colourful. You have to chase the dream. You have to believe anything is possible.

What.  That's the guy from whom George O'Grady is taking 50M GBP?  Uh oh.

Even worse, the free fall in the global stock market and the lock up of the credit markets had actually made the US dollar more valuable against the Euro and British Pound.  In fact, when we were first discussing the Race to Dubai, the Euro was on its way to an all time high value of $1.60 or so.  Today, the Euro is at about $1.30 and expected to go lower still.  The British Pound was just over $2 and now sits on the verge of $1.70.

The European Tour valued its Race to Dubai bonus pool and Dubai World Championship in British Pounds (Sterling).  Both are valued at 5M GBP.  Just a few months ago, that meant that the purse for each was just about $10 million.

Now, though, they are each worth $8.75 million.  That's a drop of one-eighth in value.  And it may get worse.  For every penny that the Dollar gains against the Pound, the Race to Dubai/Dubai World Championship loses $100,000 in value.