Edoardo Molinari has been propelled to seventh place in the Race to Dubai standings.
Edoardo Molinari has been propelled to seventh place in the Race to Dubai standings.
Edoardo Molinari has been propelled to seventh place in the Race to Dubai standings.
Edoardo Molinari has been propelled to seventh place in the Race to Dubai standings.

Golf

Good news gets better for Molinari

Italian's earnings put him seventh and while FedEx participants lose ground, those in Europe are getting ever closer to Dubai.

William Johnson

August 31, 2010

  • English
  • Arabic

Edoardo Molinari may never experience a weekend as glorious as the past one, even if his blossoming career spans another 20 years. The Italian had so many reasons to celebrate after his fantastic finish to the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles on Sunday.

He was suitably rewarded with a wild-card selection by Colin Montgomerie, Europe's Ryder Cup captain, for a closing sequence of three birdies that swept him to his ninth tournament victory. And he awoke yesterday to discover he is a serious contender in the second running of the lucrative Race to Dubai. Two months after he made his European Tour breakthrough with a three-stroke victory in the Scottish Open, the elder of the Molinari brothers made even more significant progress towards claiming a substantial share of the bounty on offer at Jumeirah Golf Estates at the end of the season.

The ?282,000 (Dh1.3 million) that Molinari, 29, collected for sweeping past Australia's Brett Rumford down the closing stretch propelled him to seventh place in the Race for Dubai. The Race will culminate with the Dubai World Championship on the Greg Norman-designed Earth Course on November 25-28. Molinari's leap forward inflicts a further blow on Paul Casey, the Englishman whom he denied a Ryder Cup wild card through his Gleneagles victory.

Casey, who is competing in the FedEx play-offs in the United States and is therefore not accumulating order-of-merit euros, drops to ninth with Ian Poulter, another Englishman on the dollar trail, slipping a place to eighth. Both will continue to lose ground during the FedEx programme, along with Rory McIlroy, the young Irishman who challenged LeeWestwood for the main prize last year. Miguel Angel Jimenez, the Spanish veteran who abandoned plans to attend his nephew's wedding in order to secure his Ryder Cup place with an appearance in Scotland, makes up the Race's top 10 after his tied third place behind Molinari.

With decent prize money on offer, up to and including the US$7.5m (Dh27.5m) Dubai World Cup, there is plenty of time for Molinari and those clustered around him to make up the leeway on Germany's Martin Kaymer who claimed the race leadership by virtue of his maiden major victory in the recent US PGA Championship. Kaymer is one of three European Tour members to have captured a major this year - Phil Mickelson's Masters triumph in April prevented a clean sweep - and all three of those champions are therefore well placed to take the $1.5m first prize in the race.

Graeme McDowell, who made his major breakthrough in the US Open, is the nearest challenger to Kaymer, having earned ?2.05m since the Race began at the end of last year. Louis Oosthuizen, the South African who turned the British Open championship at St Andrews into a procession last month, occupies sixth place, fractionally ahead of the resurgent Molinari and just behind his compatriots Ernie Els and Charl Schwartzel.

Westwood, who continues to be troubled by a calf injury which is considered mildly threatening to his Ryder Cup availability, has managed to hang on to third place despite his earnings stalling over the last few weeks. Westwood, fitness permitting, is seeking a repeat of the big-money double he recorded in the UAE last year, the Englishman romping to a six-shot victory in the Dubai World Cup, which meant he held on to the race lead and earned a combined prize of $2.75m.

That 23-under-par masterclass by Westwood confirmed him as the European Tour's order of merit winner for the second time in his career. The enormous Dubai World Cup prize fund means the Race is again likely to be settled in Dubai. Any player who has so far earned more than ?1m cannot be ruled out and that list goes down to the younger Molinari brother, Francesco, who is in 17th position. Francesco Molinari's first objective will be to climb into the top 15 on the money list; all on the list qualify for a share of the bonus pool which helps make up the $7.5m race prize fund. That privileged group is currently completed by Spain's Alvaro Quiros who has amassed seasonal earnings of ?1.1m. Sixty players will eventually take part in the Dubai tournament and, like last year, competition is intensifying around the cut-off mark. Robert-Jan Derksen, the Dutchman who tasted success here in the 2003 Dubai Desert Classic, is clinging on to the last-man-in spot by only ?200 from Ignacio Garrido of Spain. wjohnson@thenational.ae

Golfer Country Earnings 1. Kaymer Germany ?2,254,400 2. McDowell N Ireland ?2,055,917 3. Westwood England ?1,822,738 4. Els S Africa ?1,771,118 5. Schwartzel S Africa ?1,694,738

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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