This week Ian Poulter tweeted "now my clubs go into the big pink bag as my Fall Series starts in the far east "
For the world's top golfers, last week's dramatic finale to the Money title race at Disney was only the clubhouse turn in racing parlance. Now down the stretch they come !
Can Luke Donald become the first man to win it all on both tours?...How will Tiger play in Australia, and who will win the Presidents Cup?..
This is the schedule for the European tour as they close on the Race to Dubai with Luke Donald leading Rory McIlroy by 1.3m euros.
Throw in the Presidents Cup in Melbourne Australia, following their Australian Open in November and you can see the guys will be racking up their frequent flyer points.
European Tour Schedule
Oct 27 Oct 30 Andalucía Masters
Club de Golf Valderrama,Sotogrande,Spain
€3,000,000
Nov 03 Nov 06 WGC - HSBC Champions
Sheshan International GC,Shanghai,China
$7,000,000
Nov 10 Nov 13 Barclays Singapore Open
The Tanjong & The Serapong, Sentosa GC,,,Singapore
$6,000,000
Nov 17 Nov 20 Alfred Dunhill Championship
Leopard Creek CC,Malelane,South Africa
€1,000,000
Nov 17 Nov 20 Iskandar Johor Open
Horizon Hills G&CC,Johor,Malaysia
$2,000,000
Nov 24 Nov 27 South African Open
Serengeti Golf Club,Ekurhuleni,South Africa
€1,000,000
Nov 24 Nov 27 OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup*
Mission Hills Resort,Hainan Island,China
Dec 01 Dec 04 UBS Hong Kong Open
Hong Kong GC,Fanling,Hong Kong
$2,750,000
Dec 08 Dec 11 DUBAI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP presented by DP World
Jumeirah Golf Estates,Dubai,United Arab
There is an IMG Invitational in Shanghai starting today where many of the big names including the leader Rory McIlroy are warming up for next week's WGC event. It is not sanctioned so the money is unofficial, here is an AP report on the first round.
SHANGHAI -- U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy shot an 8-under 64 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead in the first edition of the Shanghai Masters, a lucrative invitational tournament that isn’t sanctioned by any of the major tours.
The 22-year-old star from Northern Ireland had eight birdies -- five on the back nine -- in his bogey-free round on Lake Malaren’s Jack Nicklaus-designed Masters course.
The 30 players in the field are vying for the $2 million first prize, the richest in golf.
American Hunter Mahan was second. He had seven birdies, including three in a row on the back nine, then settled for a par in the 18th hole when his birdie try glanced off the lip of the cup.
England’s Paul Casey and Ian Poulter and Ireland’s Padraig Harrington opened with 67s, and American Anthony Kim was another stroke back along with China’s Li Chao.
John Daly was in the group at 69 along with Lee Westwood, Retief Goosen, Y.E. Yang and Robert Karlsson.
Masters champion Charl Schwartzel had a 70, and PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley had a 72.
Because the International Management Group-run event isn’t sanctioned by a major tour, it doesn’t have world-ranking points, but the big purse drew a stellar field, In addition, the WGC-HSBC Champions is next week right here in Shanghai.
In addition there is an Invitational this week that several top American players including Barnes, Hoffman, Cink and others like Villegas, Singh and Vegas have signed up for, the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic Malaysia at the Mines Resort & Golf Club, Selangor, Malaysia. Round 1 is done there and Robert Allenby leads at -8 63
http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboards/current/r494/ for live leaderboard
Meanwhile McDowell, Kaymer, Bjorn and Garcia are in Valderrama this week, but the majority of the top 60 will not all arrive until the WGC-HSBC in China next week, which is when a certain Mrs Diane Donald is due, so although Luke has committed to the event we may have to count him out for these 2 weeks at least, probably more.. http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/racetodubai/rankings/index.html for full Race to Dubai rankings
Keegan Bradley, McIlroy, Kaymer, Schwartzel, Mickelson, Johnson, Simpson, Scott, Stricker, Clarke, Els etc are all in this $7m dollar field, more Yanks than usual as they work there way down to Australia for the Emirates Aussie Open in Sydney on November 10th where Tiger, Freddie Couples, Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, Bubba Watson and other members of the US Presidents Cup squad have been invited to join all the Australian stars including International team captain Greg Norman.
The Presidents Cup is the following week, November 17th in Melbourne.
And you thought the golf season was over !! Join me here for it all and don't forget to listen for my reports every Sunday morning between 8-10 on the International Sports Report TSN1050 Radio
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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