The 2004 European Tour was the 33rd

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 ...

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 fi ...

officially began in 1972. The season was made up of 45 tournaments counting towards the Order of Merit, which 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 ...

Ernie Els Theodore Ernest Els (; born 17 October 1969) is a South African professional golfer. A former , he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature (he stands ) along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victor ...

won the Order of Merit, defending the title he won in 2003. Despite Els dominance of the European money-list,

Vijay Singh Vijay Singh ( hif, विजय सिंह ; born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "The Big Fijian", is a Fijians, Fijian professional golfer. He has won 34 events on the PGA Tour, including three Men's major golf championships, major championsh ...

was crowned

European Tour Golfer of the Year 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 fi ...

, having won the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

and deposed

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

at the top of the

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 "rolli ...

Major tournaments

For a summary of the major tournaments and events of 2004, including the major championships and the

, see 2004 in golf.

Changes for 2004

Changes from 2003 included two new tournaments, the

Open de Sevilla The Open de Sevilla was a golf tournament on the European Tour that was played only once, in 2004. It was held at Real Club de Golf de Sevilla, in Seville, Spain. It was won by Argentina's Ricardo González, who finished two strokes ahead of Jo ...

and The Heritage, and the loss of the

Benson & Hedges International Open The Benson & Hedges International Open was a men's professional golf tournament which was played in England. It was founded in 1971 and for its first five years it was called the Benson & Hedges Festival of Golf. It was sponsored by Benson & Hedg ...

, the

Trophée Lancôme The Trophée Lancôme was a professional golf tournament which was staged in Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, France from 1970 to 2003. Gaëtan Mourgue D'Algue, a French golf enthusiast from Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, hoped to popularize the then little-k ...

and the Nordic Open. The

HSBC World Match Play Championship The Volvo World Match Play Championship was an annual match play men's professional golf tournament which was staged from 1964 to 2014. The World Match Play Championship was a limited field event, originally contested by just eight players before ...

also became an official money-list event for the first time with an increased field determined by qualification criteria, which also meant it regained world ranking status, and the

Mallorca Classic The Mallorca Classic was a men's professional golf tournament on the European Tour, held between 2003 and 2007 at Pula Golf in Mallorca. It marked the return of the tour to the island, having previously played host to the Open de Baleares betwee ...

became a full European Tour event having been a dual-ranking event in 2003.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2004 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

2004 season results on the PGA European Tour website
{{European Tour Seasons European Tour seasons