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.

Status and prizemoney

It is beyond dispute that the European Tour is the second most important tour in men's golf, behind the PGA Tour and well ahead of all the others. What is harder to define is its standing relative to the PGA Tour and whether that has risen or fallen in recent years.

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At the start of the 2005 season four of the top ten players in the Official World Golf Rankings were full members of the European Tour, namely Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Sergio García and Padraig Harrington. All four of them are also members of the PGA Tour, and they have moved to it as their main or joint main tour after playing in Europe first. It is unknown for elite players to move in the opposite direction.

Related Topics:
Official World Golf Rankings - Ernie Els - Retief Goosen - Sergio García - Padraig Harrington

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The European Tour is traditionally the first overseas move for outstanding players from non-European countries in the Commonwealth, which have long been a major source of elite golfers, for example Greg Norman and Nick Price, and these men tended to move to the PGA Tour as a second step. It seems however that the European Tour is losing this role, with the likes of Adam Scott choosing to move directly to the U.S. Additionally there is a trend for young golfers from the United Kingdom to play mainly on the PGA Tour. In some cases, such as that of top twenty ranked Luke Donald this is a natural follow through from taking a golf scholarship at a U.S. university; such scholarships are not available in Europe.

Related Topics:
Commonwealth - Greg Norman - Nick Price - Adam Scott - Luke Donald

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When Continental Europe produced its first global golf stars in the 1970s, such as Seve Ballesteros, and especially when Europe began to notch up wins over the United States in the Ryder Cup in the mid 1980s, there was widespread optimism about the future standing of the European Tour relative to the PGA Tour. This has ebbed away as several major European countries, for example Germany and Italy, have not produced high ranked golfers on a regular basis as was anticipated at that time. Nonetheless, the number European countries which have produced winners on the European Tour has increased steadily, with notable strength in depth developing in the Scandinavian countries.

Related Topics:
Seve Ballesteros - Ryder Cup - Scandinavia

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The total 2005 prize fund on the PGA Tour is approximately $250 million. On the European Tour it is over £80 million or around $150 million, which is sixty percent as much (it isn't possible to give a precise total in any currency until the end of the season as there are prize funds in several different currencies, and they are converted into Euros at the weekly rate). However both of these totals include around $50 million in prize money for seven co-sanctioned events, namely the majors and the World Golf Championships. Excluding these the European Tour offers approximately 50% as much prize money as the PGA Tour. It can be argued that since PGA Tour members have had far more wins and top ten finishes in the seven co-sanctioned events in recent years, the 50% figure is a better reflection of the actual financial resources of the European Tour relative to its rival.

Related Topics:
Majors - World Golf Championships

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Leaving aside the majors and World Golf Championship events, which are the most lucrative on the schedule, there is still much more variation in prize funds on the European Tour than on the PGA Tour, but two key tiers can be identified: those not far away from a million Euros, and those in the three to four million Euros range. Most of the former group are for co-sponsored events outside Europe and most of the latter are for events staged in Europe. At an exchange rate of around 1.3 Euros to the dollar the richer group of European tournaments offer only a little less prize money than a typical "regular" event on the PGA Tour, with its 2005 prize fund of $5-5.5 million.

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The prize funds of many European Tour events have increased rapidly since the late 1990s, and based on plans already announced for some tournaments, this seems set to continue into the 2006 season. (There is a list of 2005 prize funds here; note that they are not all announced in advance, and those which are not fixed in Euros are only converted into the Euros after the event). Nonetheless in 2005 an increasing amount of media attention has been given to the perceived failure of the European Tour to attract as many leading players to its events as in the recent past. It is unclear how this contradiction between the Tour's apparently weakening on-course position and its seemingly strong sponsorship position will play out in the future. The role of Asia may be crucial; in June 2005 a new European Tour sanctioned event in China called the HSBC Champions tournament was announced for the 2006 season. It will have a purse of $5 million, which is by far the largest ever for a tournament in Asia.

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