"We have been assured that our agreement is proceeding substantially as planned."

While John Hopkins thinks the prize money cut for the Race to Dubai could have been a lot worse because of Dubai's fall, Mark Reason and Lawrence Donegan sound much more suspicious about the short term future of the European Tour's big gamble, both pouncing on word that the Euro Tour does not even have a firm commitment for next year. Reason writes:

Those bones are now virtual dust. The European Tour will stage a cut-price 'Dubai World Championship' in November that presently lacks even a one-year guarantee.

Donegan on George O'Grady's quote:

"We have been assured that our agreement is proceeding substantially as planned."

That quote jarred with me.

Perhaps, I am reading too much into all of this (I usually do) but it seems to me that O'Grady is covering his back a little. Why on earth would he do that? Could it be that he was been "assured" of things in the past by his friends in Dubai only to find that an assurance is not always assured? If so, it would be hard to blame him.

Does this mean we can safely scratch Dubai off the future-Ryder Cup venue list?