The 2012 European Tour was the fourth edition of the

Race to Dubai 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 ...

and the 41st 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 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 fift ...

officially began in 1972. The season comprised 45 tournaments counting for the Race to Dubai, including the four major championships and four

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 ...

, and one team competition. The season began in January with the

Africa Open The Africa Open was a golf tournament on the Sunshine Tour held in Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was first contested in February 2008, over the Gary Player designed championship course at the Fish River Sun Country Club, near Port Alfred. In o ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, culminating with the

DP World Tour Championship, Dubai The DP World Tour Championship is a golf tournament on the European Tour and is the climax of the DP World Tour Rankings. It is contested on the Greg Norman-designed Earth course at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The t ...

in November. The Race to Dubai was won by Northern Ireland's

Rory McIlroy Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is the current world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over 100 weeks in tha ...

, who also collected the Golfer of the Year award having also headed the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

money list and ascended to 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 ...

during 2012.

Sir Henry Cotton Rookie 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 fift ...

was Portugal's Ricardo Santos.

Changes for 2012

Prior to the start of the 2011 season, the tour had announced their intention to realign the schedule with the calendar. As a result, in 2012 there were several changes from the previous season. There was initially one new tournament in 2012, the

Perth International The World Super 6 Perth is a golf tournament that was played for the first time in October 2012 as the ISPS Handa Perth International. It is played at Lake Karrinyup Country Club in Perth, Western Australia. It is co-sanctioned by the European T ...

, and several tournaments were dropped: the

Castelló Masters The Castelló Masters was a European Tour golf tournament that was played annually from 2008 through 2011. The event was held at the Club de Campo del Mediterráneo in Castellón, Spain. The inaugural event was won by Sergio García, who also h ...

, the

Iskandar Johor Open The Iskandar Johor Open was a golf tournament held in Malaysia and part of the Asian Tour. It was first held in 2007 when it was played at the Royal Johor Country Club in Johor Bahru. The 2008 purse was US$500,000. In 2009, Johor Open's purse was ...

, and the

Alfred Dunhill Championship The Alfred Dunhill Championship is a men's professional golf tournament which is played in South Africa. It is part of the Southern African Sunshine Tour and is one of several events in South Africa that are co-sanctioned by the more prestigious ...

, which was played in December as part of the 2013 season. During the season, the BMW Masters in China was added to the schedule, the Czech Open was cancelled, and three tournaments in Spain were also cancelled: the Iberdrola Open, the Madrid Masters, and the

Andalucía Masters The Andalucía Masters is a golf tournament on the European Tour. It was first played in 2010 at the Valderrama Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain. It was played at the same location as the former Volvo Masters. The 2012 edition was cancelled, only a ...

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2012 season.

Unofficial events

The following events were sanctioned by the European Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official.

Location of tournaments

Race to Dubai

Since 2009, the European Tour's money list has been known as the "Race to Dubai". It is based on money earned during the season and is 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 . ...

, with earnings from tournaments that award prize money in other currencies being converted at the exchange rate available the week of the event.

Final standings

Final top 10 players in the Race to Dubai: • Did not play

Awards

Golfer of the Month

The winners of the European Tour Golfer of the Month Award:

Notes

References

External links

2012 season results on the PGA European Tour website
{{European Tour Seasons European Tour seasons