The European Tour has grown considerably in recent years but a significant milestone in that development was reached on the 2001 Volvo Order of Merit, one which illustrated perfectly the impressive strides made.
For the first time, all the players in the top 115 who kept their playing privileges automatically, accumulated more than £100,000 in prizemoney, from Retief Goosen, who claimed the Vardon Trophy with £1,779,975 (2,862,806 euro) to Christian Cévaër who took 115th place with £100,487 (161,617 euro).
Last season, the top 91 players amassed six figures in prizemoney while the player in 115th spot, England's Daren Lee, needed £72,750 (122,327 euro) to keep his card.
In percentage terms, the growth has been rapid. Ryder Cup rookie, Niclas Fasth, who finished tenth on the Volvo Order of Merit, earned 1,224,587 euro, which represents a 21 per cent increase on tenth position in 2000. The respective rises for 20th, 30th and 40th places amount to 27, 42 and 42 per cent.
Søren Kjeldsen's 400,696 euro for 50th place represents a growth of 38 per cent while Jarmo Sandelin - winner of the BMW Asian Open - finished 100th in 2001, a 27 per cent jump. Cévaër's 115th position showed a 32 per cent increase on Lee last year.
Further evidence of growth comes with a study of the statistics for 1998 which show that while three years ago, 65 players reached £100,000 for the season, 50 players more achieved the mark on The 2001 European Tour International Schedule.
Pos 1972 1982 1992 1997
. Euro Euro Euro Euro
1 25,935 92,968 991,931 1,118,527
2 13,731 86,125 684,478 969,357
3 14,232 86,124 622,598 824,205
4 12,029 79,638 584,459 752,373
5 12,459 75,895 551,953 704,988
6 11,207 61,387 539,878 576,072
7 11,725 54,354 477,284 552,437
8 12,744 54,348 466,397 544,575
9 12,081 54,025 411,232 539,909
10 8,163 53,812 403,140 510,359
20 4,189 32,942 279,308 315,007
50 2,213 13,780 154,106 181,234
100 706 4,105 61,286 86,173
115 651 2,768 50,963 71,281
.
Total
for
Year 390,922 2,598,365 24,521,109 32,332,108
.
.
Pos 1998 1999 2000 2001
.
1 1,390,308 1,822,880 3,125,146 2,862,806
2 1,264,014 1,320,805 2,717,965 2,090,165
3 1,140,142 1,317,693 2,017,247 1,988,055
4 726,348 1,148,288 1,993,550 1,716,287
5 700,192 1,059,985 1,929,656 1,578,676
6 659,117 901,452 1,740,916 1,577,129
7 628,786 855,163 1,350,920 1,474,802
8 607,438 731,290 1,331,590 1,644,433
9 544,342 629,132 1,174,564 1,428,830
10 502,291 622,852 1,009,472 1,224,587
20 332,599 426,404 620,697 788,201
50 191,036 222,783 290,209 400,696
100 88,638 109,326 148,386 188,865
115 73,987 91,746 122,327 161,617
.
Total
for
Year 33,778,870 56,734,164 85,300,405 97,143,310
.
1972-1999 figures calculated using
fixed exchange rate of 1.4 euro to £1
.
2000 figures calculated using
exchange rate of 1.68145 euro to £1
. .
2001 figures calculated using
exchange rate of 1.60834 euro to £1
.
