The European Tour took a big step yesterday towards attracting their own players back from the US by announcing the world's richest tournament, the $10m Dubai World Championship, together with a bonus pool worth a further $10m.

The inaugural tournament - limited to the top 60 on the European order of merit that will be renamed the Race to Dubai - will be staged on November 19 to 22 two years from now over a Greg Norman-designed course yet to be built on Jumeirah Golf Estates.

The possibility exists of repositioning tournaments held in the Middle-East in January at Abu Dhabi and Qatar - along with the Dubai Desert Classic - to create a three-event play-off series to rival the FedEx Cup in the US, but George O'Grady, chief executive of the European Tour, said that would not be happening, for the time being at least.

"On paper that seems natural, but there are a lot of other tournaments around that time like the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai. The world has changed at the end of the year," he said.

"I admire what the PGA Tour have done to come up with the FedEx series, get a sponsor and deliver it. It wasn't the end of the world when our players were attracted to it, but it made us focus and examine where our tour was strong.

"Our best tournaments stand comparison anywhere - the BMW PGA Championship, Barclays Scottish Open, British Masters and World Matchplay Championship - and there are many good things in the key part of the summer.

"But to go against the FedEx Cup play-offs that finish in September, the major championships and the Players' Championship we really have to emphasise how strong we are at the beginning and end of the season."

The Dubai World Championship will replace the Volvo Masters as the season-ender, though the Valderrama event is expected to remain as the culmination of the tour in Europe with an enlarged but still limited field.

As part of the deal, Leisurecorps will construct a new international headquarters for the Tour at Jumeirah Golf Estates, including a year-round centre of excellence for tour players, and will support other selected tour events, fund the tour's physio truck and create a global property company in a joint initiative.

O'Grady added: "This is so much more than a tournament sponsorship. It is a long-term partnership which will see the European Tour and Dubai joining together to significantly enhance the game worldwide and take golf to a new level for spectators everywhere.

"The Race to Dubai will bring a new dimension to the European Tour, creating drama and theatre throughout the year as all the best players in the world are given the opportunity to compete in the world's richest tournament.

"With the combined prize fund of the Dubai World Championship and the Race to Dubai we have the prospect of a player standing over a putt for $3.67m.

"Moreover, as the European Tour has become ever more global in its outlook, it has been increasingly important to us to have an international base in a strategically placed location."

The winner of the new tournament will collect $1.67m while the winner of the Race to Dubai will receive $2m with prizes down to No.15 who will collect £250,000. The 2008 European Tour is already under way, but from 2010 the order of merit will run from January through to November.

It will be staged on either the Fire or Earth course designed by Norman, which could have been ready for 2008 but O'Grady said he wanted the extra year to ensure the course is in tip-top condition.

The estate will have two other courses: the Water, designed by Vijay Singh, and the Wind, which carries the names of Norman, Sergio Garcia and Pete Dye, the US designer.

Although playing worldwide, there are no immediate plans to change the name of the European Tour. It has been under consideration, with World Tour a popular replacement, but O'Grady said: "None of the business partners we have tell us they want the name European Tour to change.

"So, before we change our name I'd need really good reasons why."