The Penfold Tournament was a

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 ...

tournament on the

British PGA The Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) is the professional body which represents the interests of teaching and club golf professionals in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was established in 1901 and is based at The Belfr ...

tournament circuit. Since the circuit later evolved into 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 fift ...

, the tournament is recognised as an official European Tour event from 1972. It was played between 1932 and 1935, and from 1946 to 1974 at a variety of courses in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The tournament was sponsored by

Penfold Golf Penfold Golf Ltd. is a British sporting goods manufacturer of golf equipment founded in 1929 by Albert Ernest Penfold (1884–1941). Golf equipment include balls, tees, gloves, apart from fashion accessories such as hats and wallets. "Early r ...

and was often played at coastal resorts, whose councils shared the costs. In 1974, Penfold were taken over by

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...

and continued their sponsorship through the

Penfold 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, and originally called the British PGA Championship. History The BMW PGA Championship ...

from 1975 to 1977. It was generally played as an individual

stroke play Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In stroke play, the winner is the player who has taken the fewest strokes over the ...

event. In 1949 there were two qualifying rounds, after which the leading 32 were drawn into 16 pairs, who then played four rounds of knock-out foursomes

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

to determine the winning pair. In 1950, it was played at mixed-team match play. 32 professional men and 32 ladies qualified over 36 holes and were then drawn into pairs. These pairs played five rounds of knock-out foursomes

to determine the winning pair, the final being over 36 holes. It returned to an individual stroke play format for 1951. From 1952 to 1954, it was played at 36 holes of stroke play followed by match play for the top 32 players. In 1955 Penfold combined their sponsorship with Swallow Raincoats who had supported the Swallow-Harrogate Tournament in 1953 and 1954. The new tournament was known as the Swallow-Penfold Tournament and had a first prize of £1,000 and total prize money of £4,000. The new event had a 72-hole stroke play format. Swallow dropped their sponsorship after the 1966 event but the tournament continued with £4,000 prize money in 1967. Prize money increased to £8,000 in 1971 and finally £12,000 in 1974.

Winners

References

External links

Coverage on the European Tour's official site
– 1972–74
Results on where2golf.comHistory of Penfold Golf
{{Former European Tour Events Former European Tour events Golf tournaments in the United Kingdom Recurring sporting events established in 1932 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1974 1932 establishments in Wales 1974 disestablishments in the United Kingdom