The 2006 European Tour was the 35th

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

season since the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fif ...

officially began in 1972. The season began with five events in late 2005 and consisted of 47 official money events, equalling the record set the previous year. This included the four major championships and three

World Golf Championships The World Golf Championships (WGC) are a group of annual professional golf tournaments created by the International Federation of PGA Tours as a means of gathering the best players in the world together more frequently than the pre-existing four ...

, which are also sanctioned by the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

. 27 events took place in Europe, 12 in Asia, five in the United States, two in South Africa and one in Australia. Total prize money exceeded €117 million, including nearly €40 million in the major championships and WGC events. The Order of Merit race came down to the last few shots of the final tournament, and was won by

Pádraig Harrington Pádraig Peter Harrington (born 31 August 1971) is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has won three major championships: The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Champ ...

for the first time. He was the first Irishman to top the Order of Merit since the official beginning of the tour. The Player of the Year award was given to Order of Merit runner up Paul Casey of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year was

Marc Warren Marc Warren (born 20 March 1967) is an English actor, known for his British television roles. His roles have included Albert Blithe in '' Band of Brothers'', Danny Blue in ''Hustle'', Dougie Raymond in ''The Vice'', Dominic Foy in '' State ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

Major tournaments

For a summary of the major tournaments and events of 2006, including the major championships and the

, see 2006 in golf.

Changes for 2006

Changes from the 2005 season included four new tournaments, the HSBC Champions in China, the

Abu Dhabi Golf Championship The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is a European Tour golf tournament held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. When founded in 2006, it was one of three European Tour events to be staged in the Arabian Peninsula, but at one point was one of six. H ...

, the Austrian Open, which returned to the European Tour schedule for the first time since 1996, and the Royal Trophy, a team event contested between teams from Europe and Asia. In addition, there were two editions of the

Volvo China Open The Volvo China Open is a men's golf tournament that has been held annually in China since 1995. The event is organised by the China Golf Association and has been co-sanctioned by the European Tour since 2004. It has also featured as part of the A ...

and the Russian Open became a full European Tour event having previously been a dual-ranking event with the

Challenge Tour 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 Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History ...

. The German Masters, the Heineken Classic, and the Abama Open de Canarias were lost from the tour schedule, as was the New Zealand Open which was held later in the year as part of the 2007 season.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2006 season.

Unofficial events

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

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in

Euro The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

Awards

Notes

References

External links

2006 season results on the PGA European Tour website
{{European Tour Seasons European Tour seasons