The 2019 European Tour was the 48th 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 ...

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 fif ...

officially began in 1972 and the 11th edition of the Race to Dubai. The Race to Dubai was won by Spain's

Jon Rahm Jon Rahm Rodríguez (born 10 November 1994) is a Spanish professional golfer. He was the number one golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for a record 60 weeks and later became world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first a ...

, who was also named Golfer of the Year. Scotland's Robert MacIntyre was the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year.

Changes for 2019

Rule changes

From January 1, 2019 onwards, tournaments followed the new

rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Education * Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pert ...

released by the USGA and

The R&A The R&A is the collective name of a group of companies that together play a significant role within the game of golf. Historically, "the R&A" was a colloquial name for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews; in 2004, the club spun of ...

which were designed to simplify the rule book and speed up the pace of play. The most noticeable changes included golfers being able to putt on the green with the flag remaining in, and drops being made from knee rather than shoulder height.

Scheduling changes

As announced in

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, the US

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 ...

was moved from August to May, starting in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. The

PGA of America The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America) is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 men and women members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish ...

cited the addition of golf to the Summer Olympics, as well as cooler weather enabling a wider array of options for host courses, as reasoning for the change. It was also believed that the PGA Tour wished to re-align its season so that its FedEx Cup Playoffs would not have to compete with the start of the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

season in early September, since both United States broadcast partners ( CBS and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

) are NFL broadcast partners. Consequently, the European Tour moved the flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, from the congested May date to late September, four weeks after the end of the 2019 PGA Tour season. It was hoped the date would attract more top names.

Changes to the Race to Dubai

The number of Race to Dubai points available in the Final Series (last three events of the season) was increased, and the field size reduced. The aim was to make more players still have a chance of winning the Race to Dubai entering the Final Series. In addition, although the prize money was not increased, the bonus pool of US$5m would now be split among the top five players rather than the top ten. The money saved from restricting field sizes was used solely to increase the first prizes, which means that the tournaments would not have the standard prize fund distribution, and 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 ...

would have the largest tournament first prize in golf of US$3m.

Tournament changes

*New tournament: Saudi International. *Returning tournament: Alfred Dunhill Championship (not held during the 2018 season due to course renovations) *Tournaments on the European Tour schedule for the first time: ISPS Handa Vic Open, Kenya Open. *Changes to the Rolex Series: the

Abu Dhabi Golf Championship The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is a European Tour golf tournament held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. When founded in 2006, it was one of three European Tour events to be staged in the Arabian Peninsula, but at one point was one of six. H ...

replaced the

Open de France The Open de France is a European Tour golf tournament. Inaugurated in 1906 it is the oldest national open in Continental Europe and has been part of the European Tour's schedule since the tour's inception in 1972. The 100th edition of the event ...

. *No longer part of the schedule: Joburg Open, Tshwane Open,

Sicilian Open The Sicilian Open was a European Tour men's professional golf tournament. It was played for the first time in 2011. The event was held in Sicily at the Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa. In 2012 the event was held at Verdura Golf & Spa Resort on ...

, Fiji International, Shot Clock Masters.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 2019 season.

Unofficial events

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

Changes for 2019

Rule changes

Scheduling changes

Changes to the Race to Dubai

Tournament changes

Schedule

Unofficial events

Location of tournaments

Race to Dubai

Awards

See also

Notes

References