The 1978 European Tour was a series of

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 wi ...

tournaments that comprised the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) European Tournament Players’ Division circuit. It is officially recognised as the seventh season of the

PGA 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 fift ...

. Historically, the PGA's Order of Merit only included tournaments in Great Britain and Ireland, but in 1970 events in

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...

were included for the first time. The circuit and organisation evolved further over the following years, with the title of the circuit being changed to ''PGA European Golf Tour'' in 1979. The season was made up of 21 tournaments counting for the Order of Merit, and some non-counting tournaments that later became known as "Approved Special Events". The schedule included the major national opens around Europe, with the other tournaments mostly held in England, Wales and Scotland. The Order of Merit was won by Spain's

Seve Ballesteros Severiano Ballesteros Sota (; 9 April 1957 – 7 May 2011) was a Spanish professional golfer, a World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. A member of a gifted golfing family, he won 90 inte ...

Changes for 1978

There were several changes from the previous season, with the addition of the Belgian Open, the B.A./Avis Open in Jersey, and the

European Open Championship The European Open is a European Tour golf tournament. Founded in 1978, up to 1994 it was played at various courses in England, including Sunningdale and Walton Heath, except for the 1979 event, which was held at Turnberry in Scotland. Betwee ...

; the return of the

Sumrie Better-Ball The Sumrie Better-Ball was a professional golf tournament played from 1969 to 1978. It was a 72-hole better-ball stroke-play event. It was played at Pannal in 1969 and 1970 and then at Blairgowrie in 1972 and 1973. From 1974 it was called the Sum ...

; and the loss of the Uniroyal International Championship, the

Callers of Newcastle The Callers of Newcastle was a golf tournament on the European Tour in 1977 named for its sponsor, the Callers department store. It was held at Whitley Bay Golf Club in Whitley Bay, England. The tournament was won by South Africa's John Fourie, ...

, and the Double Diamond

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interde ...

and

individual An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...

events. In addition, the Kerrygold International was omitted from the schedule in 1978 due to 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 concept i ...

being held at Waterville. The Lancome Trophy, which clashed with the new European Open, was also missing.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1978 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 using a points-based system.

Awards

Notes

References

External links

1978 season results on the PGA European Tour website
{{European Tour Seasons European Tour seasons

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 fift ...