GOLF'S European Tour has reached a $1BILLION agreement to increase prize money and make its name history.
It will be renamed DP World Tour starting next year, in recognition of the large investment that Dubai will make into the sport.
Lee Westwood and Helen Storey celebrate winning the Race to Dubai 2020
DP World is already the largest sponsor of the European Tour
The tour's most striking move is that every event now offers a minimum prize pool of $2million.
21 of the 40 European Tour events failed to meet that number this year. Seven offered less than half of it.
DP World was already the Tour's largest paymasters.
They will sponsor the next week's 9m Tour Championship, which is the culmination of the season-long Race to Dubai. In addition, they will provide a $5m bonus pot.
Keith Pelley, chief executive of Tour, refused to disclose the financial details of the arrangement. It is estimated to be worth at most $50m per year over ten years with the possibility of an additional ten.
The $200m barrier will be broken for the first time next year when the total prize money for 47 tournaments of the DP World Tour schedule will exceed the $200m mark.
Pelley stated: "When I was elected in 2015, I believed that the European Tour was a misnomer.
Tommy Fleetwood thinks the deal is a great help for young golfers
"We are truly a global tour, and 24 of our 47 events in the next year will be outside Europe.
"This is the perfect moment to make the switch and bring golf into a new exciting and rewarding era, with DP World and the tour celebrating 50 years of their respective anniversaries next summer."
Tommy Fleetwood was one of the first to welcome the announcement from Dubai.
According to the English star, "There has never been a better moment for a young golfer dreaming of playing on our tour."
The 2022 DP World Tour will begin on 25 November with the Joburg Open. It will include at least 47 tournaments from 27 countries.
They will feature new tournaments in South Africa, Japan, South Africa, and Belgium. Additionally, there will be an expanded Rolex Series that includes five events: the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship; Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic; Genesis Scottish Open; BMW PGA Championship; and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
Three tournaments, the Genesis Scottish Open and Barbasol Championship, will be co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour for the first time.
This partnership is an attempt to stop any attempts by interested companies to create breakaway golf tours.
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