Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Fifty-one tournaments in 27 countries were what the posters said around the Earth Course, talking of the Race to Dubai.
It was a long and exciting road to reach the final flourish - a sprint to the line and the title of European Tour number one. The Dubai World Championship provided a grandstand finale and produced a fitting champion. It was somehow right that the winner of the tournament also claimed the top spot in the Order of Merit. Congratulations Lee Westwood, you deserve everything you get.
He did it in style too. The year 2000 Order of Merit winner has come back from a slump of huge proportions which saw him outside the world's top 250 in the rankings just two years after his first triumph. He even contemplated giving the game up. Thankfully he didn't, he fought back and this week we saw a new Lee Westwood, and a performance that has been coming for a long time.
You probably have to go back to Nick Faldo's 1996 demolition of Greg Norman at Augusta before you can identify better golf from an Englishman. Westwood played with a deadly calm, succeeding fully in the objective given to him by caddie Billy Foster to bully his way to the Dubai World Championship title and Race to Dubai crown. With both titles on the line he was bogey free in compiling weekend rounds of 66 and 64. It was the best golf of Westwood's life.
His objective from here has to be to harness that mental approach at the majors. If he does watch out; green jackets, claret jugs and the rest of the most prized trophies in the game could easily be making their way to Westwood Towers. It is hard to imagine anyone in the world being capable of beating him in the form he showed in dropping just two shots in 72 holes on the Earth Course and that includes Tiger Woods.
OK, it wasn't a major but he was determined to overhaul Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai and he was treating it with the intensity of one of the big four championships as he sought to overcome the disappointment of missing out on the Open at Turnberry in July.
McIlroy, I'm sure, must be disappointed. He played some stunning golf himself and a third place finish most weeks would have been enough to claim the Order of Merit title. But nobody could have accounted for the exhibition of ball striking, course management and focus that Westwood showed.
To have heard the number of players raving about McIlroy's ball striking this week was convincing in the extreme, especially if his game on the greens tightens up. He's only 20 and runner-up in the Race is some achievement. But it is Westwood who is rightly Europe's number one. Quite simply tee to green he is second to none - stunningly consistent and so in control of his game. If he continues to putt well, this could provide the platform to spring him into the major winner's enclosure.
The only thing Lee made look difficult this week was lifting the 30lb trophy above his head. I'm sure the £1.6 million cheque was slightly easier to carry.
It was the perfect scenario for the European Tour and their Middle Eastern hosts to have the Race decided by the winner of the inaugural Dubai World Championship. And don't be fooled into thinking the Earth Course was a pushover because the winning score was 23 under par, a six-stroke victory for the man from Worksop just showed how well he played.
Was the Race to Dubai a success? I would have to say yes. It provided a thrilling climax to the year and it felt as though it generated more attention than previous Orders of Merit, but next year will have an awful lot to live up to if it is to match this!
