PGA European Tour

The PGA European Tour, much more commonly referred to simply as the European Tour, is a top-level men's professional golf tour. Its headquarters are at Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. It is the primary golf tour in Europe and is second to the U.S. based PGA TOUR in worldwide prestige. The European Tour was established by the British based Professional Golfers' Association, but became independent of its parent in 1984. It is completely separate from the PGA TOUR and the PGA of America. Its tournaments are mostly held in Europe, but in recent years, it has expanded to other parts of the world outside of North America. The European based events are nearly all played in Western Europe and the most lucrative of them take place in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain. Only one of the events held in Europe takes place east of the former Iron Curtain.

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 small purses. The first multi-competitor strokeplay tournament was The Open Championship, which was introduced in 1860. That year it was for professionals only, and attracted a field of eight. The following year amateurs were permitted to enter. Unlike in many other sports which originated in the United Kingdom, the amateur-professional divide never created major problems in golf, at least at the elite competitive level.

Related Topics:
Scotland - Strokeplay - The Open Championship

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Over the few decades following the creation of The Open Championship the number of golf tournaments with 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. However, for many decades it remained difficult if not impossible for golfers to earn a living from prize money alone. From 1901 the British professionals were represented by The Professional Golfers' Association, and it was this body which ultimately created the European Tour.

Related Topics:
Continental Europe - The Professional Golfers' Association

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By the post-World War II period prize money was becoming more significant, encouraged by the introduction of television coverage. However each event was organised separately by a golf club, association, or a commercial promoter. In the U.S. a formal PGA Tour had existed since the 1930s, and in 1972 The Professional Golfers' Association introduced the PGA European Tour. In its early years the season ran for six months from April to October, and was based entirely in Europe, and mainly in Great Britain and Ireland. For example the 1972 season consisted of twenty tournaments, of which 12 were in the United Kingdom and one was in the Republic of Ireland. Of the seven events in Continental Europe, six were "national opens", namely the Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swiss Opens. The seventh was the Madrid Open.

Related Topics:
World War II - PGA Tour - Republic of Ireland - Continental Europe

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Over the next three decades the tour gradually lengthened and globalised. 1982 saw the introduction of the first event outside of Europe, namely the Tunisian Open. In 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.

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The European Tour has always been sensitive to the risk that its best players will leave to play on the PGA Tour: both for the higher purses it offers almost every week, and to increase their chances of glory in the three majors played in the U.S. by acclimatising and playing more on U.S.-style courses. In an attempt to counter this it introduced the "Volvo Bonus Pool" in 1988. This was an extra pot of 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 received a share. This system continued until 1998, after which renewed emphasis was placed on maximising the prize money in individual tournaments.

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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 back to February. A first visit to East Asia followed for the 1992 Johnnie Walker Classic in Bangkok. This has since proved 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 region remains low and sponsors there are unable to compete financially with their West 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.

Related Topics:
Dubai Desert Classic - East Asia - Johnnie Walker Classic - Soviet Bloc - Challenge Tour - Other PGA Tours - Sunshine Tour - PGA Tour of Australasia - Asian Tour

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While the golf authorities in the various parts of the world, all of which are independent as the sport has no global governing body, co-operate harmoniously on the whole, there is also room for rivalry. The European Tour is very self-conscious about its position relative to the PGA Tour, but the two have steadily moved closer together on the course. In 1998 the European Tour added the three U.S. majors to its official schedule. The leading Europeans had all been competing in them for many years, but now their prize money counted towards the European Tour Order of Merit, which sometimes made a great deal of difference to the end-of-season rankings. The following year the three individual World Golf Championships, also usually played in America, and also offering far more prize money than most European events, were established and added to the European Tour schedule. Since the minimum number of events that a player must play to retain membership of the European Tour has long been eleven, this meant that international players could in theory become members of the tour by playing just four events on it apart from the majors and the World Golf Championships, which all elite players enter in any case. Players such as Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have taken advantage of this to play the PGA and European Tours concurrently and even Tiger Woods, who has sometimes played nine of the necessary eleven events, once suggested that he might enter the extra four required so that he could win the European Order of Merit, although he is yet to do so.

Related Topics:
World Golf Championships - Ernie Els - Retief Goosen - Tiger Woods

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