Professional golf tours

Structure of tour golf

Professional golf is organised into a number of regional "tours", each of which stages a sequence of weekly tournaments. There are at least twenty professional golf tours, each run by a PGA or an independent tour organisation, which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. The larger tours have a tournament almost every week during a season that lasts for most of the year.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Each tour has "members" who are entitled to play in as many of its events as they wish. A golfer can become a member of a leading tour by succeeding in an entry tournament, usually called a "Qualifying School"; or by achieving a designated level of success in its tournaments when competing as an invited non-member; or much more rarely, by having notable achievements on other tours which make them a desirable member. Membership of some of the lesser tours is open to any registered professional who pays an entry fee.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There are enormous differences in the financial awards offered by the various golf tours, so players on one of the lesser tours always aspire to move up if they can. The PGA Tour, which is the first tier tour in the United States, offers nearly a hundred times as much prize money each season as the third tier NGA Hooters Tour. The hierarchy of tours in financial terms is as follows:

Related Topics:
PGA Tour - NGA Hooters Tour

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Clear 1st: PGA Tour
• Clear 2nd: PGA European Tour
• Others in the top 5 (in alphabetical order): Champions Tour; Japan Golf Tour; LPGA Tour.

The last three have probably shuffled in the rankings, and this depends partly on exchange rates. The Japan Golf Tour was at its relative peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the Japanese economy was also at its peak, the Champions Tour (then the PGA Senior Tour) reached a relative peak in the mid to late 1990s, and the LPGA Tour seems to have strengthened its relative position slightly since the turn of the millennium.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The other tours are effectively "feeder" tours: any player who succeeds on them is likely to move to a richer tour as soon he or she can.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~