The 1996 European Tour was the 25th official season 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 known as 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 ...

. The 1996 season saw co-sanctioning arrangements expand, with the

PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf Ra ...

Heineken Classic The Heineken Classic was a men's professional golf tournament played in Australia from 1990 to 2005 as part of the PGA Tour of Australasia. From 1990 to 1992 it was called the Vines Classic. It was held at the Vines Resort in Western Australia f ...

joining three Southern Africa Tour events on the schedule. The season was ultimately made up of 38 tournaments counting for the Order of Merit, and several non-counting "Approved Special Events". The Order of Merit was won by Scotland's

Colin Montgomerie Colin Stuart Montgomerie, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 23 June 1963) is a Scotland, Scottish professional golfer. He has won a record eight European Tour PGA European Tour#Order of Merit winners, Order of Merit titles, including a stre ...

for the fourth consecutive year.

Changes for 1996

There were several changes from the previous season, with the addition of the

, the

Dimension Data Pro-Am The Dimension Data Pro-Am is an annual golf tournament on the Southern African Sunshine Tour, founded in 1996. The tournament was co-sanctioned by the European Tour for the first two years. In 2020 it was co-sanctioned with the Challenge Tour ...

and the Loch Lomond World Invitational; and the loss of the

Turespaña Open De Canaria The Tenerife Open was a professional golf tournament on the European Tour. Formerly known as the Turespaña Open De Canaria when the tournament was last held in 1995. In 2021, the tournament was revived into the European Tour schedule. It is pla ...

and the

Open de Baleares The Open de Baleares was a European Tour golf tournament which was played annually from 1988 to 1995. It had five names in eight years. It was staged at various courses on Majorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands of Spain. The most notable w ...

. Soon after the schedule was announced, a third Southern Africa Tour event was added, the FNB Players Championship. In January, the

Jersey Open The Jersey Open was a European Tour golf tournament which was played in Jersey, a British Crown dependency in the English Channel, from 1978 to 1995. It had several different names during this period. The venue was La Moye Golf Club. The winner ...

was moved onto the

European Senior Tour The Legends Tour is the current branding of the European Senior Tour, a professional tour for male golfers aged 50 and over, run by the PGA European Tour. The tour was branded as the Staysure Tour for the 2018 and 2019 seasons after UK-based insur ...

schedule and the Open Mediterrania was replaced by the Catalan Open. In February, a new tournament in Spain, the

Oki Pro-Am The Oki Pro-Am was a men's professional golf tournament. It was a European Tour event that was only played in 1996 and 1997. It was played at Golf La Moraleja on the number 1 and 2 courses in Madrid, Spain Madrid ( , ) is the capital and mos ...

was added opposite the

Dunhill Cup The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. It was for three-man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championshi ...

. In March, the Slaley Hall Northumberland Challenge was added to the schedule, taking the dates vacated by the Jersey Open, opposite the U.S. Open.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1996 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 titled as the Volvo Order of Merit and was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in

Pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

Awards

Notes

References

External links

1996 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 ...