The three World Golf Championships - the Andersen Consulting Match Play, the NEC Invitational and the American Express Stroke-Play - will each have prize funds of US$5,000,000 (approx £3 million) and an elite group of Volvo Ranking events continue to develop with no fewer than eight tournaments each offering prize funds in excess of £1,000,000 in 1999.
Ken Schofield, Executive Director of the European Tour, said: “The new World Golf Championships, organised by the PGA Tours International Federation, are already impacting professional golf globally, and in Europe we are witnessing the development of an elite group of Volvo Ranking tournaments, demonstrating a desire by our Promoters and Sponsors to maintain the progress and popularity of the game.
“The reality is that in operating our policy of opportunity and incentive we must be successful in positioning our sport on a global basis. We believe that such orderly progression of the game, forged by the World Golf Championships, will create additional value down the road for all our Members, and we are delighted today to provide for them, the media and the public, clear evidence that our initiatives continue to provide strong competition.
“With the ease of international travel, and all forms of communications exploding, the world is becoming smaller and the identity of golfers more common. Many players have stated their desire to play against each other more often. There is an effort to do that with an element of control.
“The European Tour realises that it is in its collective interest to be part of this, and that it will help us to take our game forward rather than backward. Every week, Tour players will be competing for points to qualify for the World Golf Championships, and it is important to realise these are annual qualifications.
“We are now seeing in European Tour terms the blueprint for the millennium with significantly increased prize money and a structured schedule, which comprise the four major championships, the three World Golf Championships which will become four with the World Cup in the year 2000, the Volvo Ranking tournaments and the Approved Special Events.
“All of which makes 1999 very exciting especially as Europe will be seeking at The Country Club in Brookline to win the Ryder Cup for a record third successive time and to keep possession of the prized trophy for the sixth time in the last eight Matches.
“No-one can dispute that, with the tangible evidence of the results of the Ryder Cup Matches, that the European Tour and the USPGA Tour are close in term of competition. We believe that with all these increased opportunities we remain competitive.
“Our vision for the future remains to have the maximum possible number of Volvo Ranking Tournaments each with minimum prize money of £1 million. We are announcing today 32 Ranking tournaments for 1999, of which a minimum of eight will each have prize funds of £1 million or more, and we have good reason to believe we will confirm further tournaments in the near future. We will liaise closely with individual Promoters and Sponsors in announcing prize funds for 1999.”
The Deutsche Bank - SAP Open TPC of Europe, Volvo PGA Championship, Murphy’s Irish Open, the 128th Open Golf Championship, the Smurfit European Open, the Volvo Scandinavian Masters, the Linde German Masters and the Volvo Masters will each have prize funds in excess of £1,000,000.
The Alfred Dunhill South African PGA Championship, to be played at Houghton Golf Club, Johannesburg, on January 14-17, will launch the programme of Volvo Ranking tournaments which will climax with the Volvo Masters at Montecastillo (October 28-31) and the American Express World Championship Stroke Play at Valderrama from November 4-7.
The European Tour has accepted an offer from the Asian PGA for a joint sanctioned event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on February 4-7. The tournament will have a prize fund of US$750,000 and the field of 144 will comprise of 50 per cent European Tour Members and 50 per cent Asian PGA Members.
Schofield added: “We travel as a Tour by invitation, and Tour Members will again appreciate the opportunity to move from the Heineken Classic at the superb Vines Resort in Perth, Australia, to outstanding locations in Malaysia, Dubai and Doha prior to the traditional continental sector of the Tour beginning in Portugal.”
With the introduction of the World Golf Championships, the Board of the European Tour and the Tournament Committee have ratified that all the World Golf Championship events in addition to the four major championships will count towards the 11 tournaments in which a player must compete for membership of the European Tour.
The Trophée Lancôme, which will celebrate its 30th Anniversary in 1999 on September 16-19 at Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, will be the send-off tournament for the 33rd Ryder Cup Matches between Europe and the United States at The Country Club, Brookline, Massachussetts. Qualification for the European team, which will be captained by Mark James, began at the Canon European Masters on September 3-6 and will end at the BMW International Open on August 19-22, 1999. Official money gained in the three US major championships (Masters Tournaments, US Open and US PGA Championship) will again be included in the European Team Rankings table and in addition the inaugural World Golf Championship Tournament at Carlsbad, California - the Andersen Consulting World Match Play - will carry qualification points.
The 1999 Johnnie Walker Classic, which will be tri-sanctioned for the first time in its nine year history by the European, Australasian and Asian PGA Tours, will be staged on November 11-14, and it will become the first Volvo Ranking tournament on the 2000 European Tour schedule. The World Cup of Golf, which in the year 2000 becomes part of the World Golf Championships, will be played the following week at the Mines Resort and Golf Club, Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia.
DEVELOPMENT OF PRIZE MONEY
YEAR NO. OF TOTAL
OFFICIAL PRIZE
EVENTS MONEY
£
1975 17 611,000
1976 19 874,878
1977 21 1,024,416
1978 20 1,206,267
1979 23 1,442,220
1980 22 1,711,930
1981 22 1,806,480
1982 26 2,298,035
1983 27 2,819,618
1984 26 3,405,137
1985 26 5,308,481
1986 26 6,194,370
1987 27 8,734,609
1988 30 10,702,490
1989 34 13,562,578
1990 37 16,100,425
1991 34 19,469,235
1992 38 22,298,358
1993 38 23,845,726
1994 37 23,955,399
1995 35 27,758,985
1996 37 29,439,350
1997 34 28,949,504
1998 32 29,248,084
