New European Tour dates revealed

The European Tour has unveiled a 53-event schedule for 2009, culminating in the $20m (£11.3) Dubai World Championship at Jumeirah next November.

The "Road to Dubai" sees events in 26 venues, starting this November with the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai.

Five tournaments are added to the 2009 schedule but the New Zealand and Asian Opens and Volvo Masters do not feature.

"The 2009 schedule confirms how the Tour has become ever-more global," said Tour chief executive George O'Grady.

The events will be spread out over a 13-month period starting at the end of 2008, with the HSBC Champions event and the UBS Hong Kong Open being staged twice at either end of the Tour.

"We are excited about the start of the Race to Dubai and the superb quality of the field for the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, with five of the top seven currently active players in the world all entered," said O'Grady.

IAIN CARTER BLOG
"There are still plenty of Is to be dotted and Ts to be crossed before the calendar is confirmed"
BBC Sport's Iain Carter

The shake-up of the Tour has come about as an attempt to redress the balance of the world's biggest names playing on the more lucrative US PGA Tour.

But the European Tour has upped the minimum number of events a player must play to be a member to 12, and Ernie Els has expressed doubts as to whether big-name American players would be willing to travel that much.

And BBC Golf correspondent Iain Carter has warned 10 of the events on the 2009 schedule have yet to be confirmed - nine of them in Europe.

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