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The European Tour is a slick, multi-national organisation that requires first class infrastructure to support its activities. Abu Dhabi will become the 36th destination on The European Tour that will feature a minimum of 48 tournaments on the 2006 tour schedule held in 24 countries.
The Tour came to life in 1971 with a total prize money fund of €362,600 (£250,000). In comparison, The 2005 European Tour International Schedule consisted of 47 official tournaments with prize money of €109,234,314 (£73,831,413). This is big business.
A unique business that generates profit for the benefit of players
The European Tour operates a broad range of business initiatives essential to its primary mission of administering professional tournament golf. It is a unique business which generates profits for the benefit of its members - the tournament players - who receive dividends by way of competing and winning prize money.
The business model and continuing progress of The European Tour is recognised and respected throughout both the sporting and corporate sectors as an outstanding achievement in the always difficult - and often delicate - challenge of combining professional sport with vital sponsorship and corporate interests.
The funds drawn from sponsors and suppliers, television and ticket sales, hospitality and governments, support a thriving international community in which The European Tour actively promotes the game at all levels. And, unlike many other sports, the amateur-professional divide is embraced at the elite competitive level.
Breaking the boundaries
The incubation period for professional golf was a long one. The number of golf tournaments with prize money gradually increased and spread beyond the borders of the United Kingdom to include various countries in the Continental Europe. However, prize money remained small and it remained nearly impossible for golfers to earn a living from the sport. Although British professionals were represented by The Professional Golfers' Association from 1901 it was not until The European Tour was created in 1972 that the sport flourished and gained a much wider audience.
Encouraged by the introduction of television, the Tunisian Open was the first event to be held outside of Europe in 1982. In 1989 The Tour visited the Middle East for the first time for the Dubai Desert Classic. A year later, there were 38 events on the schedule, including 37 held in Europe. The start of the season was moved back to February to accommodate the growing number of tournaments and a first visit to East Asia followed in 1992 with the Johnnie Walker Classic in Bangkok.
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, known as the Sunshine Tour. This policy was extended to the PGA Tour of Australasia in 1996, and recently to the Asian Tour.
Opportunities and incentives
The European Tour developed a policy of "opportunity and incentive" created by recently retired Executive Director Ken Schofield and his successor, George O'Grady, combining The European Tour Order of Merit and other officially sanctioned events each year.
The approach was formalized through The European Tour's money list known as the "Order of Merit". The Order of Merit award was originally based on a points system which meant that it was not necessarily given to the golfer who won the most money. In 1975 there was an added incentive for the best players to compete in tour events with the Order of Merit being awarded by prizemoney. Today, it is calculated in Euros, although many events have prize funds which are fixed in British Pounds or U.S. Dollars, in which case the amounts are converted into Euros at the exchange rate for the week that the tournament is played.
The prize funds of many European Tour events have increased rapidly since the late 1990s. In November 2005 a new European Tour sanctioned event in China called the HSBC Champions tournament was played for the first time. With a purse of $5 million, it was by far the richest tournament ever played in Asia.
The structure of the season
There are only minor variations in the overall pattern from one year to the next whilst the overall structure of each season remains the same. Tournaments sometimes change venue or name, driven by new sponsors, but the principal events have fixed and traditional places in the schedule and this determines the rhythm and the dynamics of the season.
The 2006 schedule includes five events held late in 2005. All of the events up until late March take place outside of Europe, and most of these are co-sanctioned with other tours. The 2005 season included five events in China, two events in South Africa, and single events in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Anne-Birte Stensgaard, Senior News Editor
