PGA European Tour

The PGA eu tour is an corporation which operates the 3 main guys's expert golf tours in Europe: the elite european tour (currently known as the DP global tour for sponsorship reasons),[1] that's the predominant golf tour in Europe; the european Senior tour, for gamers aged fifty or older; and the developmental challenge excursion. Its headquarters are at Wentworth membership in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. the ecu tour turned into hooked up via the British-based professional Golfers' affiliation through the Seventies, and responsibility turned into transferred to an independent PGA ecu excursion company in 1984.[2] maximum tournaments on the PGA ecu tour's 3 tours are held in Europe, but starting inside the Nineteen Eighties an increasing quantity were held in other components of the sector; in 2015 a majority of the ranking occasions on the eu tour had been held outdoor Europe, although this protected each Majors and global golfing Championship events which might be rating activities for a couple of excursions. Europe-primarily based events are almost all played in Western Europe, with the maximum lucrative of them taking area inside the united kingdom, eire, Germany, France and Spain. The PGA eu tour is a golfer-managed organisation whose primary purpose is to maximize the earnings of tournament golfers. it's far a agency constrained by means of guarantee and is run by way of a expert group of workers but managed with the aid of its gambling participants thru a board of directors composed of 12 elected beyond and gift excursion gamers and a tournament committee of 14 modern-day gamers. The chairman of the board is David Williams who replaced Neil Coles who had held the publish for 38 years.[3] The chairman of the match committee is Thomas Bjørn. The PGA eu tour is the lead partner in Ryder Cup Europe, a joint undertaking also inclusive of the PGA of first-rate Britain and eire and PGA of Europe that operates the Ryder Cup suits in cooperation with the PGA of america. The PGA european tour has a 60% hobby in Ryder Cup Europe, with each of its junior partners preserving 20%.

History#

Professional golf began in Europe, specifically in Scotland. The first professionals were clubmakers and greenkeepers who also taught golf to the wealthy men who could afford to play the game (early handmade equipment was expensive) and played "challenge matches" against one another for purses put up by wealthy backers. The first multi-competitor stroke play tournament was The Open Championship, which was introduced in 1860. Over the following decades, the number of golf tournaments offering prize money increased slowly but steadily. Most were in the United Kingdom, but there were also several "national opens" in various countries of Continental Europe.

In 1901, The Professional Golfers' Association was founded to represent the interests of professional golfers throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and it was this body that ultimately created the European Tour. As the tournament circuit grew, in 1937 the Harry Vardon Trophy was created to be awarded to the member of the PGA with the best stroke average in select major stroke play tournaments of the season. This would later become known as the Order of Merit, and at different times has been calculated using stroke average, a points system and money earned. Each year the PGA would determine which tournaments were to be included for the Order of Merit.

By the post-World War II period prize money was becoming more significant, with sponsors being attracted by the introduction of television coverage, and as such it was becoming more feasible for professional golfers to make a living by playing alone. In the United States a formal organised tour, which later became known as the PGA Tour, had been administered by the PGA of America since the 1930s. However even into the 1960s and 1970s, the majority of tournaments in Europe were still organised separately by the host golf club or association, or a commercial promoter.

In 1972 The Professional Golfers' Association created an integrated "European tour" with the inclusion of eight major tournaments in Continental Europe on their Order of Merit schedule. These tournaments were the French Open, which was first included in 1970; the Italian, Spanish, German and Swiss Opens, which were included in 1971; and the Dutch Open, the Madrid Open and the Lancia d'Oro tournament, which were included for the first time.^[5] As such the 1972 season is now officially recognised as the first season of the PGA European Tour. For several years, the British PGA and continental circuits continued to run separately, each with their own Order of Merit. Following the example set in the United States, and having been threatened with a breakaway,^[6] in 1975 the PGA agreed to amend their constitution giving the tournament side more autonomy with the formation of the Tournament Players Division.^[7] In 1977 the Tournament Players Division joined with the Continental Tournament Players Association to become the European Tournament Players Division,^[8][9][10] and the following year it was agreed with the European Golf Association that the Continental Order of Merit would be discontinued.^[11]

In its early years the season ran for six months from April to October, and was based entirely in Europe, mainly in Great Britain and Ireland. Over the next three decades the tour gradually lengthened and globalised. The first event held outside Europe was the 1982 Tunisian Open.^[2] That year, there were 27 tournaments and the season stretched into November for the first time. In 1984, the PGA European Tour became independent of The Professional Golfers' Association. The following year, the tour became "all-exempt" with the end of pre-qualifying for tournaments.^[12]

The European Tour has always been sensitive to the risk that its best players will leave to play on the PGA Tour for many reasons. The PGA Tour usually offers higher purses and European players want to increase their chances of glory in the three majors played in the U.S. by playing on more U.S.-style courses to acclimate themselves. In an attempt to counter this phenomenon, the European Tour introduced the "Volvo Bonus Pool" in 1988. This was extra prize money which was distributed at the end of the season to the most successful players of the year—but only golfers who had played in a high number of the European Tour's events could receive a share. This system continued until 1998, after which renewed emphasis was placed on maximising prize money in individual tournaments.

In 1989, the tour visited Asia for the first time for the Dubai Desert Classic. By 1990, there were 38 events on the schedule, including 37 in Europe, and the start of the season had moved up to February. A first visit to East Asia for the Tour occurred at the 1992 Johnnie Walker Classic in Bangkok. This has since proven to be one of the most notable initiatives in the history of the tour, as East Asia is becoming almost its second home. Shortly afterwards the tour also made its debut in the former Soviet Bloc at the 1994 Czech Open, but much less has come of this development as participation in golf in the former Soviet region remains low and sponsors there are unable to compete financially with their Western European rivals for the limited number of slots available on the main tour each summer. However, the second-tier Challenge Tour has visited Central and Eastern Europe somewhat more frequently. In 1995, the European Tour began a policy of co-sanctioning tournaments with other PGA Tours, by endorsing the South African PGA Championship on the Southern African Tour (now the Sunshine Tour). This policy was extended to the PGA Tour of Australasia in 1996, and most extensively to the Asian Tour.

In 1998, the European Tour added the three U.S. majors – the Masters Tournament, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open – to its official schedule. The leading European Tour players had all been competing in them for many years, but now their prize money counted towards the Order of Merit (a year later for the Masters Tournament), which sometimes made a great deal of difference to the end-of-season rankings. The following year, in 1999, the World Golf Championships were established with the three individual tournaments, also offering substantially more prize money than most European events, added to the European Tour schedule.

Since the minimum number of events that a player must play to retain membership of the European Tour was eleven, the addition of the majors and WGCs meant that players could potentially become members, or retain membership, of the tour by playing just four other events. Players such as Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have taken advantage of this to play the PGA and European Tours concurrently. For the 2009 season, the minimum number of events required for members was increased to twelve;^[13] this coincided with the elevation of the HSBC Champions, previously a European Tour event co-sanctioned by three other tours, to World Golf Championships status. The minimum increased to 13 in 2011, but beginning in 2013 team events such as the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup were allowed to count towards the minimum.^[14] In 2016 the 13-event minimum was changed to five events, not counting the four majors and four WGCs;^[15] while this change did not affect players eligible for all the majors and WGCs, it made it easier for players not eligible for these to retain European Tour membership while playing a full PGA Tour schedule. The minimum was reduced from five to four in 2018.^[16]

In November 2021, the tour was retitled as the DP World Tour as part of a sponsorship agreement with Dubai-based DP World.^[1

Strategic alliance with the PGA Tour#

In November 2020, the tour entered into a "strategic alliance" with the PGA tour.[17] As part of the settlement, the PGA tour acquired a fifteen% stake in ecu excursion Productions, the Scottish Open won a brand new title sponsor and became co-sanctioned by the PGA excursion, and two ordinary PGA excursion tournaments also have become co-sanctioned via the ecu tour: the Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship.[18] there has been also a new sponsor and improved prize fund for the Irish Open.[19] In June 2022, in response to the emergence of LIV golf, the excursions introduced that the PGA excursion had been increasing their stake to forty% and in addition adjustments to the tour, along with extended prize price range and main gamers within the DP international excursion scores gaining PGA tour playing cards for the following season.

Status and prize money#

the european excursion is considered the second one most critical tour in guys's golfing, at the back of the united states-based PGA excursion, however retains substantially better status than different leading golf excursions round the arena. This fame is contemplated by way of the minimum international ranking factors available in every tours respective tournaments, and prize cash to be had. the full prize money available on the european tour is approximately 1/2 that of the PGA tour. however, this consists of the majors and world golfing Championships, which are the maximum rewarding at the agenda, so the difference for everyday tournaments is considerably higher. there's additionally a great deal greater variation in prize finances between tournaments on the european excursion than on the PGA tour. even though the prize budget of many european excursion activities have improved rapidly for the reason that past due Nineteen Nineties, in particular with the advent of the Race to Dubai and the Rolex collection, occasionally the european tour has didn't attract as many main gamers to its activities as in the past, with even some of the pinnacle european gamers staying away. for lots players, the ecu excursion is visible as a stepping-stone to the PGA tour.[21] throughout the past due 20th century, the ecu excursion turned into traditionally the first overseas move for splendid players from non-eu countries, in particular inside the Commonwealth, lengthy a main supply for elite golfers, together with Greg Norman, Nick rate and Ernie Els.[22] these gamers tended to transport to the PGA excursion as a 2nd step. whilst Continental Europe produced its first worldwide golf stars within the Nineteen Seventies, along with Seve Ballesteros, and particularly when Europe started to notch wins over the usa within the Ryder Cup in the mid 1980s, there has been full-size optimism about the destiny status of the eu excursion relative to the PGA tour. This has ebbed away as main gamers persisted to base themselves inside the america and numerous essential eu international locations, which includes Germany and Italy, have now not produced high-ranked golfers on a regular foundation as become formerly predicted. nevertheless, the wide variety of european countries which have produced winners on the ecu excursion and PGA tour has elevated, with super golfing intensity growing inside the Scandinavian international locations.