Challenge Tour
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The Challenge Tour is the second tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and as with on the main European Tour and the European Seniors Tour, some of the events are played outside of Europe. World ranking points are awarded for high finishes in Challenge Tour events.
The tour was introduced in 1986 and was initially called the Satellite Tour. The Order of Merit was introduced in 1989, with the top five players on it winning membership of the European Tour for the following season. The following year the tour was renamed the Challenge Tour. Up to 1993 the Challenge Tour Rankings were based on each players' best several results, but since 1994 it has been a straightforward money list, with all results counting. In 2005 the total prize fund was €5,491,491 (£3,750,557). [1]
Players who are successful on the Challenge Tour qualify for membership of the European Tour the following year. The top 10 Challenge Tour players effectively win full membership of the tour (there are many different exemption categories and it isn't a clear-cut in/out issue), while the next 35 receive more limited privileges. Players who win three Challenge Tour events in a season are fast tracked onto the main tour immediately. [2]
One competitive level down from the Challenge Tour there are three third-level developmental tours, the Alps Tour, the EPD Tour and the PGA EuroPro Tour, each of which is based in a different region of Europe. Each season the top five players from the Order of Merit of each of these tours wins a place on the Challenge Tour for the following season. The Challenge Tour also has an annual Qualifying School.
[edit] Schedule
The 2006 schedule is set out below. The first two events were actually played in December 2005. The are many off weeks in the early part of the season, but through the European summer there is an event every week. The numbers in brackets after winners' names show the player's total number of wins on the Challenge Tour including that event. No-one accumulates many wins on the Challenge Tour because success at this level soon leads to promotion to the European Tour.
For the latest version of the tour schedule on the European Tour's website, including links to full results, click here.
[edit] Challenge Tour Rankings winners
- This list is incomplete
The Challenge Tour Rankings have been calculated in Euros since 1999. Prior to that they were calculated in British Pounds.
| Year | Order of Merit leader | Country | Earnings (€) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Mark Pilkington | Image:Flag of Wales.svg Wales | 119,152 |
| 2005 | Marc Warren | Image:Flag of Scotland.svg Scotland | 103,577 |
| 2004 | Lee Slattery | Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg England | 95,980 |
| 2003 | Johan Edfors | Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden | 94,509 |
| 2002 | Lee S James | Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg England | 121,531 |
| 2001 | Mark Foster | Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg England | 97,737 |
| 2000 | Henrik Stenson | Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden | 108,711 |
| 1999 | Carl Suneson | Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden | 69,642 |
[edit] See also
- Alps Tour - a third-level tour played in France, Italy and several nearby countries
- EPD Tour - a third-level tour based in Germany
- PGA EuroPro Tour - a third-level tour based in the United Kingdom
- Nationwide Tour - the analogous tour operated in North America by the PGA TOUR
- Professional golf tours
[edit] External link
- The PGA European Tour's official website - there is a Challenge Tour subsection in most of the main sectionsde:Challenge Tour
