The 2022 season marks the 50th anniversary of the European Tour group, and there has been constant evolution in that time.
To celebrate the milestone, we take a look back at 50 years of driving golf further through our three guiding principles of being Innovative, Inclusive and Global.
When the first official season of what was then the European Tour teed off in 1972, tournaments counting towards the Order of Merit were held across eight different European countries between April and October.
The Tour and its schedule have continued to grow and evolve in that time, with each season now comprising a year-long global schedule which has visited a total of 50 countries and 440 different venues over the past five decades.
The dramatic increase in scheduled tournaments from those early years has come with a growing number of players too, with winners hailing from almost every corner of the globe.
Since May 1972, when Spain’s Antonio Garrido lifted the first Tour trophy at the Spanish Open, there have now been 1916 tournaments, 8468 different players representing 110 different countries, and 557 different winners from 37 different countries.
The first step towards a more diverse schedule of tournaments took place 10 years after the Tour was established, when the 1982 Tunisian Open became the first event to be staged outside of Europe.
The move came as the 27 tournament season extended into November, and just a few years later, the Tour continued its move around the global with the first Dubai Desert Classic – now one of the marquee events in the calendar - in 1989.
In 2020, the addition of two events at Aphrodite Hills Resort marked Cyprus becoming the 50th country to be visited, and in 2023 Japan will become the 51st different country to host an event, with the postponed ISPS Handa Championship.
As the Tour began to expand into new territories, co-sanctioning agreements were forged from the creation of long-standing partnerships with Tours around the world.
The DP World Tour and the South Africa-based Sunshine Tour have combined close to 100 times on tournaments since the first co-sanctioned event, the Lexington South African PGA Championship at the Wanderers Club, in February 1995.
The winner of that first event was the Big Easy himself, Ernie Els. The four-time Major winner and former World Number One remains the most successful South African player in the Tour’s history.
Fellow South African Major winners Retief Goosen, Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen and Trevor Immelman have all secured multiple DP World Tour titles, and with recent winners including Thriston Lawrence, Garrick Higgo, Dean Burmester, Daniel van Tonder and Justin Harding, the partnership continues to help the career development of South African players.
Furthering collaboration within golf’s ecosystem, the DP World Tour announced a Strategic Alliance with the PGA TOUR in November 2020 to partner on a number of areas including global scheduling, prize funds and playing opportunities for the respective memberships.
As part of the agreement, the two organisations will for the first time in 2022 co-sanction three events: the Genesis Scottish Open – the third Rolex Series event of the season - the Barbasol Championship; and the Barracuda Championship.
Launched in 2017 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Rolex’s enduring partnership with the European Tour group, the Rolex Series is one of the most important initiatives in the DP World Tour’s history.
The Rolex Series is the premium category of events on the DP World Tour, comprising five tournaments in 2022, staged in a variety of world-class golfing locations around the globe, each with a minimum prize fund of US$8 million and 8,000 DP World Tour Rankings points available.
This season’s campaign has seen wins at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic for Thomas Pieters and Viktor Hovland respectively, with the Genesis Scottish Open, BMW PGA Championship and season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, to come.
Last year, reigning Open Champion Collin Morikawa ended the season by sealing his first Rolex Series win at Jumeriah Golf Estates, becoming the first American to top what was then the Race to Dubai Rankings, and winning the famous Harry Vardon Trophy.
A year after GolfSixes was first introduced in 2017, the event broke new ground when the event welcomed Ladies European Tour players to become part of the competition.
In 2021, the Scandinavian Mixed took the idea of a mixed event set-up a step further. Demonstrating a desire to create more equal opportunities in golf, the Tour co-sanctioned the historic event in Sweden with the Ladies European Tour.
The field comprised 78 men and 78 women playing in the same field for one trophy and one prize, while there were also Official World Ranking points on offer for both Tours during both a Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup year.
After the Covid-19 pandemic forced its intended first edition in 2020 to be cancelled, the event returned last year, hosted by Swedish golf superstars Henrik Stenson and Annika Sorenstam.
There were further milestone moments as Caroline Hedwall became the first female in history to hold the solo lead in a DP World Tour event following a second round 64, before Alice Hewson claimed top female honours with a third-place finish behind winner Jonathan Caldwell and runner-up Adrian Otaguei.
The event will return in June this year, at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden, with Henrik – named Europe Ryder Cup captain in March – and ten-time Major winner Annika back again as hosts.
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