Tiger Woods, who celebrated his third win in seven starts on Sunday, is the main draw for the $5.3 million Turkish Airways World Golf Finals on the Antalya coast, which also involves Justin Rose. It is understood that as part of a three-year commitment Woods has forged a lucrative “relationship” with the country’s national airline.
This will be more welcome news for Woods’s management team as they rebuild a sponsorship portfolio depleted in the wake of their client's sex scandal.
By next year the event intends to offer “the richest first prize in golf” – a mooted $2.5 million – and this cast-list shows the elite are interested in signing up for four days which will remind of the first World Matchplay Championship founded by Mark McCormack.
The winner will receive $1.5 million, the runner-up will collect $1 million, while seventh and eighth will have to make do with $300,000. Ostensibly, the make-up was decided on ranking points, with Charl Schwartzel, Hunter Mahan and Webb Simpson completing the garlanded field.
Inevitably, this unauthorised event has been received negatively by the tours, although Chubby Chandler, the ISM chief executive masterminding the project, has taken moves to assuage their concerns.
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