The Swedish Golf Tour, currently titled as the Cutter & Buck Tour for sponsorship reasons, is a developmental

professional golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball 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 wi ...

which was formerly operated by Svenska Golftourerna AB, as well as being owned equally by the Swedish Golf Federation and the PGA of Sweden. Since 2018 it has been operated by the Swedish Golf Federation. The tour is designed to help Swedish golfers to reach the standard of play needed to qualify for 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 ...

or the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...

. The events on the SGT are included in the

Nordic Golf League The Nordic Golf League is one of the third-tier men's professional golf tours, recognised by the European Tour, also known as the Satellite Tours. The top five players on the Order of Merit at the end of each season earn status to play on the seco ...

, which is one of four European Tour-recognised third-tier tours, and is run in collaboration by the national golf associations of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The four third-level tours carry

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolling ...

points. Each year, usually in October, a 2-stage

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

tournament is held, which gives players an opportunity to qualify for the SGT. The developing tour to the SGT is the Future Series, with a minimum prize fund of SKr 50,000 per tournament 2020. The Future Series Ranking, gives players the opportunity to qualify for the SGT. The Swedish Golf Tour for women was established in 1986 and is run by the same organization.

History

The history of the men's Swedish Golf Tour is closely linked to the history of professional golf in Sweden. Until the late 1960s, the main, and usually only, professional tournament in Sweden was the Dunlop Cup, played 1932–1968. From 1958, the Penfold Cup was added as a yearly professional tournament in Sweden. In 1969, a conflict between the Swedish Golf Federation and the PGA of Sweden, resulted in that no professional tournaments were sanctioned by the federation to take place in the country. Starting in 1970, the Dunlop Cup was transformed to the official Swedish PGA Championship, which became the most important tournament on a small but soon growing professional circuit in Sweden. At this time, the majority of the club professionals in Sweden were

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

and none of the Swedish PGA members were tournament professionals. A point system at the few existing tournaments decided the yearly selection of the two best professionals, who were Swedish citizens, to represent Sweden at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, usually played far away in the world and long after the Swedish golf season was concluded. Understandably, the Swedish teams usually had difficulties to be competitive. The first Swedish tournament professionals appeared in the early 1970s, with Jan Rosell as the very first in 1971, soon followed by Bengt Malmqvist and Gunnar Mueller. From 1977, only tournament professionals have represented Sweden in the World Cup. In 1970, the first international world class 72-hole golf tournament in Sweden took place, the invitational tournament Volvo Open, with

Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (; born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "the Golden Bear", is an American retired professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greate ...

and

Lanny Wadkins Jerry Lanston "Lanny" Wadkins Jr. (born December 5, 1949) is an American professional golfer. He won 21 tournaments on the PGA Tour, including one Men's major golf championships, major, the 1977 PGA Championship. He ranked in the top 10 of the Of ...

in the field, at Delsjö Golf Club and Royal Drottningholm Golf Club. In 1972, Flygt Open at Viksjö Golf Club and in 1973, Eskilstuna Open was added to the domestic pro circuit schedule. In July 1973, the first

tournament held in Sweden, the Scandinavian Enterprise Open, took place at Royal Drottningholm Golf Club outside

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. Swedish elite players, amateurs as well as professionals, had the opportunity to try to qualify and a few of them were invited directly to the main tournament. Abdel Halim, Egypt, and John Cockin, England, both working as club professionals in Sweden for many years, shared 24th and 36th place respectively. Cockin shared his place with world stars Kel Nagle and Doug Sanders. In 1978, Gunnar Mueller became the first Swedish born professional to qualify for the last round at the Scandinavian Enterprise Open. Six Swedish amateurs had achieved that before him. At the annual meeting of the Swedish Golf Federation in March 1983, "open golf" was introduced, which meant that, from next year both amateurs and professionals were allowed to enter all domestic competitions, the PGA Championship and international amateur tournaments excluded (amateurs later allowed at the PGA Championship). Non-PGA members with a licence, as well as PGA members, were allowed to receive prize money. The new and internationally unique rules, made it possible to transform the traditionally most important amateur tournaments in the country to professional tournaments, attractive to sponsors and made it possible for many top amateurs to turn professional. The Swedish Golf Tour, SGT, was founded in November 1983, to begin in May 1984, and was organized by the PGA of Sweden and the Swedish Golf Federation (SGF) together. Two tournament directors, one from each organization, were appointed to switch responsibility between them for the tournaments, Christer Lindberg from the PGA and Göran Henriks from the SGF. The main sponsor was Kullenberg Fastighets AB The same year, when tournament professionals already had been dominating the Swedish PGA Championship and the other domestic professional tournaments for several years, a Swedish Club pro PGA Championship, limited to instructing professionals in Sweden and not included in the SGT, was established. The first year, 1984, the SGT consisted of seven tournaments with a total prize amount of SKr 1.3 million and winners' share between SKr 25,000 and SKr 50,000 for each tournament. Except that, the

tournament in Sweden, the

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

Scandinavian Enterprise Open (SEO), with a prize fund of SKr 1.5 million, was included in the SGT. As the best Swedish players were expected to mainly compete abroad, two Order of Merit standings were counted, one with total money won by SGT-members, with other main tours included, and one with only SGT tournaments counted. One of the purposes with two rankings was to select players to represent Sweden at the World Cup. The first Order of Merit (Total) was won by

Anders Forsbrand Anders Gunnar Vilhelm Forsbrand (born 1 April 1961) is a Swedish professional golfer who formerly competed on the European Tour. Early life Forsbrand was born in Filipstad, Sweden. He began playing golf at Uddeholm Golf Club, a small club with a ...

and the first Order of Merit (SGT) was won by

Mats Lanner Mats Åke Lanner (born 5 March 1961) is a Swedish professional golfer, who formerly played on the European Tour. In 1987, he became the second Swedish player to win a European Tour tournament. Early life and amateur career Lanner was born in Got ...

, who won the final tournament Kullenberg Playoff at Björn Borg Sports Club, Lindö,

. The year after, the tour grew to nine tournaments, of which one had a first prize of SKr 100,000. Beyond that, the

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

SEO was included in the SGT. The 1985 Order of Merit (Total) was won by Ove Sellberg and the Order of Merit (SGT) was won by Per-Arne Brostedt. In 1988, a company, Svenska Golftourerna AB, was founded, owned equally by the PGA of Sweden and the Swedish Golf Federation, to organize the two Swedish Golf Tours for men and women. Its first chairperson was Ola Öqvist. During 1987–1998, tournaments in other Nordic countries were included in the tour. From 1990 to 1994, all SGT tournaments were co-sanctioned by the

. In 1994, a

tournament for the SGT was established, the first year held in the spring, with 312 players entering, and a second stage in June. The Q school was later moved to the autumn. Until 1996, the SGT Order of Merit standings was decided by money won and since 1997 a point system has been in force. In 1999, the

(NGL) was established and came to include the SGT, as well as the national golf tour of Denmark and tournaments in Finland and Norway. As the European Tour and the Challenge Tour have become stronger and richer, players have usually stayed to the tour on the highest level they have been qualified for, why the SGT Order of Merit (total) have lost its significance in favor of the NGL Order of Merit. The top five players on the NGL rankings list at the end of each season earn a place on the second tier Challenge Tour for the following year. Since July 2015, the NGL carry

points. Since 2018 the Swedish Golf Federation drives the tour in its own organization. In 2020, the men's Swedish Golf Tour initially included 16 scheduled tournaments, held in four countries, beginning in February and ending in October. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the 2020 schedule was subject to change. The Swedish Golf Federation and the PGA of Sweden decided on June 2, of a restart of the

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

tour on July 2–4 with Katrineholm Open hosted by Robert Karlsson at Katrineholm Golf Club. Only two scheduled tournaments in

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in February took place before a three months break.

Sponsorships

The Swedish Golf Tour has been titled as the Scandinavian Golf Tour (1993–1995), the Telia Infomedia Golf Tour (1996–1997), the Telia Tour (1998–2008), the SAS Masters Tour (2008–2009), the Nordea Tour (2010–2016), the Swedish Golf Tour (2017–2019) and the MoreGolf Mastercard Tour (2020–2023). In July 2023, it was announced that the tour had signed a title sponsorship agreement with Cutter & Buck, being renamed as the Cutter & Buck Tour from 2024.

Order of Merit winners

Sources:

Notes

References

External links