Challenge Tour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 Schedule
2 Challenge Tour Rankings winners
3 See also
4 External link

The Challenge Tour is the second tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and as with on the main European Tour and the European Seniors Tour, some of the events are played outside of Europe. World ranking points are awarded for high finishes in Challenge Tour events.

The tour was introduced in 1986 and was initially called the Satellite Tour. The Order of Merit was introduced in 1989, with the top five players on it winning membership of the European Tour for the following season. The following year the tour was renamed the Challenge Tour. Up to 1993 the Challenge Tour Rankings were based on each players' best several results, but since 1994 it has been a straightforward money list, with all results counting. In 2005 the total prize fund was €5,491,491 (£3,750,557). [1]

Players who are successful on the Challenge Tour qualify for membership of the European Tour the following year. The top 10 Challenge Tour players effectively win full membership of the tour (there are many different exemption categories and it isn't a clear-cut in/out issue), while the next 35 receive more limited privileges. Players who win three Challenge Tour events in a season are fast tracked onto the main tour immediately. [2]

One competitive level down from the Challenge Tour there are three third-level developmental tours, the Alps Tour, the EPD Tour and the PGA EuroPro Tour, each of which is based in a different region of Europe. Each season the top five players from the Order of Merit of each of these tours wins a place on the Challenge Tour for the following season. The Challenge Tour also has an annual Qualifying School.

[edit] Schedule

The 2006 schedule is set out below. The first two events were actually played in December 2005. The are many off weeks in the early part of the season, but through the European summer there is an event every week. The numbers in brackets after winners' names show the player's total number of wins on the Challenge Tour including that event. No-one accumulates many wins on the Challenge Tour because success at this level soon leads to promotion to the European Tour.

Dates	Tournament	Host country	Winner	Notes
1-4 Dec	48 Abierto Mexicano Corona	Mexico	Antonio Maldonado (1)
8-11 Dec	Abierto Visa de la Republica	Argentina	Kevin Stadler (1)
2-5 Feb	Guatemala Open	Guatemala	Miguel Carballo (1)
9-12 Feb	Costa Rica Open	Costa Rica	Johan Axgren (2)
22-26 Feb	Estoril Challenge	Portugal	Kyron Sullivan (1)	First event in Europe.
9-12 Mar	Kenya Open	Kenya	Johan Axgren (3)
6-9 Apr	Peugeot Challenge	Spain	David Drysdale (2)
27-30 Apr	Open di Puglia e Basilicata	Italy	Anthony Snobeck (1)
11-14 May	Parco di Monza Challenge	Italy	Alvaro Salto (3)
18-21 May	Telenet Trophy	Belgium	Toni Karjalainen (2)
25-28 May	Moroccan Classic	Morocco	Adrien Mörk (1)	Mörk shot 59 in round 2.
31 May - 3 Jun	Morson International Pro-am Challenge	England	Alvaro Quiros (1)
8-11 Jun	Thomas Bjorn Open	Denmark	Marcus Higley (1)
15-18 Jun	Lexus Open	Norway	Kalle Brink (3)
15-18 Jun	Aa St Omer Open	France	Cesar Monasterio (2)	Also an official money event on the European Tour.
22-25 Jun	Credit Suisse Challenge	Switzerland	Francisco Cea (2)
29 Jun - 2 Jul	Open Mahou de Madrid	Spain	Juan Parron (1)
6-9 Jul	Scottish Challenge	Scotland	Sam Walker (1)
13-16 Jul	Texbond Open	Italy	Carlos del Moral (1)
20-23 Jul	MAN NO Open	Austria	Rafael Cabrera Bello (1)
27-30 Jul	Ryder Cup Wales Challenge	Wales	Sion Bebb (1)
3-6 Aug	Ireland Ryder Cup Challenge	Ireland	John Wade (1)
10-13 Aug	Vodafone Challenge	Germany	Martin Kaymer (1)
17-20 Aug	Rolex Trophy	Switzerland	Alexander Noren (1)
24-27	ECCO Tour Championship	Denmark	James Heath (1)
31 Aug - 3 Sep	Telia Challenge Waxholm	Sweden	Rafael Echenique (1)
14-17 Sep	Open des Volcans	France	Martin Kaymer (2)
22-24 Sep	Challenge de Espana	Spain	Adrien Mörk (2)
28 Sep - 1 Oct	Kazakhstan Open	Kazakhstan	Mark Pilkington (1)
5-8 Oct	Open de Toulouse	France	Julien Foret (1)
19-22 Oct	Apulia San Domenico Grand Final	Italy	James Hepworth (2)	The tour championship.

For the latest version of the tour schedule on the European Tour's website, including links to full results, click here.

[edit] Challenge Tour Rankings winners

This list is incomplete

The Challenge Tour Rankings have been calculated in Euros since 1999. Prior to that they were calculated in British Pounds.

Year	Order of Merit leader	Country	Earnings (€)
2006	Mark Pilkington	Wales	119,152
2005	Marc Warren	Scotland	103,577
2004	Lee Slattery	England	95,980
2003	Johan Edfors	Sweden	94,509
2002	Lee S James	England	121,531
2001	Mark Foster	England	97,737
2000	Henrik Stenson	Sweden	108,711
1999	Carl Suneson	Sweden	69,642

[edit] See also

Alps Tour - a third-level tour played in France, Italy and several nearby countries
EPD Tour - a third-level tour based in Germany
PGA EuroPro Tour - a third-level tour based in the United Kingdom
Nationwide Tour - the analogous tour operated in North America by the PGA TOUR
Professional golf tours