The 2019 European Tour was the 48th season of the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

, the main professional golf tour in Europe since its inaugural season in 1972.

Changes for 2019

Rule changes

From January 1, 2019 onwards, tournaments followed the new

rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pertaining to the structure or behavior internal to a business * School rule, a rule tha ...

released by the

USGA The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

and

The R&A The R&A (or more formally, the R&A Trust Company (No. 1) Limited) is the collective name of a group of companies that together play a significant role within the game of golf. Historically, "the R&A" was a colloquial name for the Royal and A ...

which were designed to simplify the rule book and speed up the pace of play. The most noticeable changes included golfers being able to putt on the green with the flag remaining in, and drops being made from knee rather than shoulder height.

Scheduling changes

As announced in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

was moved from August to May, starting in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. The

PGA of America The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America) is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish and elevate t ...

cited the addition of golf to the Summer Olympics, as well as cooler weather enabling a wider array of options for host courses, as reasoning for the change. It was also believed that the PGA Tour wished to re-align its season so that its FedEx Cup Playoffs would not have to compete with the start of the NFL season in early September, since both United States broadcast partners ( CBS and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

) are NFL broadcast partners. Consequently, the European Tour moved their flagship event; the

BMW PGA Championship The BMW PGA Championship is an annual men's professional golf tournament on the European Tour. It was founded in 1955 by the Professional Golfers' Association (Great Britain & Ireland), Professional Golfers' Association, and originally called the ...

, from the congested May date to late September, four weeks after the end of the 2018–19 PGA Tour season. It was hoped the date would attract more top names.

Changes to the Race to Dubai

The number of Race to Dubai points available in the Final Series (last three events of the season) was increased, and the field size reduced. The aim was to make more players still have a chance of winning the Race to Dubai entering the Final Series. In addition, although the prize money was not increased, the bonus pool of would now be split among the top five players rather than the top ten. The money saved from restricting field sizes was used solely to increase the first prizes, which means that the tournaments would not have the standard prize fund distribution, and the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai would have the largest tournament first prize in golf of .

Tournament changes

*New tournament: Saudi International. *Returning tournament: Alfred Dunhill Championship (not held during the 2018 season due to course renovations) *Tournaments on the European Tour schedule for the first time: ISPS Handa Vic Open, Kenya Open. *Changes to the Rolex Series: the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship replaced the

Open de France The Open de France is a European Tour golf tournament. Inaugurated in 1906 it is the oldest national open in Continental Europe and has been part of the European Tour's schedule since the tour's inception in 1972. The 100th edition of the event ...

. *No longer part of the schedule: Joburg Open, Tshwane Open, Sicilian Open,

Fiji International The Fiji International was a men's golf tournament in Fiji, originally sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia. The event was Fiji's first internationally broadcast golf tournament to a worldwide audience across more than 30 countries in over 4 ...

, Shot Clock Masters.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2019 season.

Unofficial events

The following events were sanctioned by the European Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official.

Location of tournaments

Race to Dubai

Points distribution

The distribution of Race to Dubai points for 2019 European Tour events were as follows:

Final standings

The Race to Dubai was based on tournament results during the season, calculated using a points-based system.

Changes for 2019

Rule changes

Scheduling changes

Changes to the Race to Dubai

Tournament changes

Schedule

Unofficial events

Location of tournaments

Race to Dubai

Points distribution

Final standings

Awards

See also

Notes

References

External links