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 2007 the total prize fund was 5,282,301.

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.[1]

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 2009 schedule is set out below.[2] The numbers in brackets after winners' names show the player's total number of wins on the Challenge Tour including that event. It is rare for someone to accumulate many wins on the Challenge Tour because success at this level soon leads to promotion to the European Tour.

Dates Tournament Host country Winner OWGR
Points
Notes
19-22 Mar Club Colombia Masters Colombia Flag of Argentina Alan Wagner (1) 12 Co-sanctioned with the Tour de las Americas
16-19 Apr Tusker Kenya Open Kenya Flag of England Gary Boyd (1) 12
30 Apr - 3 May Moroccan Classic by Banque Populaire Morocco Flag of England Robert Coles (2) 12
14-17 May Allianz Open Côtes d'Armour Bretagne France Flag of England Lee S. James (4) 12
21-24 May Piemonte Open Italy Flag of Italy Edoardo Molinari (3) 12
28-31 May Telenet Trophy Belgium Flag of France François Calmels (1) 12
4-7 Jun Kärnten Golf Open Austria Flag of Germany Christoph Günther (1) 12 New tournament
11-14 Jun Challenge of Ireland Ireland Flag of England Robert Coles (3) 12
18-21 Jun Saint-Omer Open France Flag of Sweden Christian Nilsson (1) 18 Also an official money event on the European Tour
25-28 Jun The Princess Sweden Flag of England Andrew Butterfield (1) 12 New tournament
2-5 Jul Credit Suisse Challenge Switzerland Flag of England Peter Baker (3) 12
9-12 Jul Allianz EurOpen de Lyon France
23-26 Jul SWALEC Wales Challenge Wales
30 Jul - 2 Aug Scottish Challenge Scotland
6-9 Aug SK Golf Challenge Finland
13-16 Aug Trophée du Golf de Genève Switzerland Limited field Pro-Am
27-30 Aug Wroclaw Challenge Poland
3-6 Sept Challenge de España Spain
10-13 Sep The Dutch Futures Netherlands
17-20 Sep Kazakhstan Open Kazakhstan
24-27 Sep Chinese Challenge China
1-4 Oct ECCO Tour Championship Denmark
8-11 Oct Allianz Open du Grand Toulouse France
22-25 Oct Italian Federation Cup Italy
28-31 Oct Apulia San Domenico Grand Final Italy

[edit] 2009 Money Leaders

Rank Player Country Events Prize money ()
1 Edoardo Molinari  Italy 7 60,790
2 Robert Coles  England 7 59,280
3 José-Filipe Lima  Portugal 3 59,120
4 Gary Boyd  England 6 47,176
5 François Calmels  France 9 38,647
6 Florian Fritsch  Germany 4 32,700
7 Andrew Butterfield  England 7 32,464
8 Carlos Rodiles  Spain 4 31,275
9 Richard McEvoy  England 7 30,784
10 Lee S. James  England 8 29,294

As of 28 June 2009.[3]

[edit] Challenge Tour Rankings winners

The Challenge Tour Rankings have been calculated in Euros since 1999. Prior to that they were calculated in British Pounds.

Year Player Country Earnings
2008 David Horsey  England 144,118
2007 Michael Lorenzo-Vera  France €128,927
2006 Mark Pilkington  Wales €119,152
2005 Marc Warren  Scotland €103,577
2004 Lee Slattery  England €95,980
2003 Johan Edfors  Sweden €94,509
2002 Lee S James  England €121,531
2001 Mark Foster  England €97,737
2000 Henrik Stenson  Sweden €108,711
1999 Carl Suneson  Spain €69,642
1998 Warren Bennett  England £81,053
1997 Michele Reale  Italy £51,679
1996 Ian Garbutt  England £37,661
1995 Thomas Bjørn  Denmark £46,471
1994 Raymond Burns  Northern Ireland £43,584
1993 Klas Eriksson  Sweden £48,366
1992 Paul Affleck  Wales £39,769
1991 David R Jones  England £35,533
1990 Giuseppe Cali  Italy £28,383

The PGA European Tour does track career earnings on the Challenge Tour. A ranking of career earnings would be of little value as a measure of success, since the objective of players on the tour is to leave it as soon as possible by winning promotion to the main tour.

[edit] Schedules by year

The table below summarises the development of the tour since 1999, which was the year that the euro became the currency of record for the tour. It should be noted that individual tournaments have purses fixed in a mixture of British pounds, euro and U.S. dollars, so year on year changes in the total prize fund reflect exchange rate fluctuations as well as prize fund movements in constant currencies.

Year Ranking tournaments Total purse (€)
2008 33 6,017,393
2007 32 5,282,301
2006 30 4,799,014
2005 30 5,493,413
2004 29 4,370,149
2003 28 4,676,787
2002 26 3,982,797 [4]
2001 29 3,888,135
2000 23 2,593,986
1999 27 2,196,529

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

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