The year of 1999 not only brings the European Tour to its 28th season, but also all of us to within one year of the new Millennium. It is fascinating to recall that one century ago Harry Vardon won the third of his record six Open Championships, Willie Smith captured what was only the fifth U.S. Open whilst the U.S. PGA Championship and the Masters Tournament were respectively 17 and 35 years away from being born!
This year will not only see the 63rd playing of the Masters Tournament, the 99th U.S. Open, the 128th Open Golf Championship and the 81st U.S. PGA Championship but also history being made with the first three World Golf Championships. This Series of events will feature the game’’s top players competing against each other in a variety of competitive formats. It is a milestone in the history of professional golf with the world’’s leading international Tours for the first time jointly sanctioning and staging an official competition.
The advent of the World Golf Championships will most certainly enhance the globalisation of the game, as the major championships have done throughout the 20th Century. The objective of the International Federation of PGA Tours, whose role it is to organise the World Golf Championships, is for the Series to strengthen the competitive structure of professional golf while preserving the tradition of the sport. The Series also fit well with the European Tour’’s policy of "opportunity and incentive".
For the reality is that all players will be able to play their way into these Championships, each of which in 1999 has a prize fund of US $5,000,000 with a first prize of US $1,000,000. A case in point is Thomas Björn because in 1995, when Europe regained the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill, it would be fair to say that very few people had heard of the golfer they now call the "Great Dane". Yet by 1997 he was a Member of the European Team which successfully retained the Ryder Cup at Valderrama. Now, through being among the leading 64 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, he is eligible for the inaugural World Golf Championship - the Andersen Consulting Match Play at the La Costa Resort and Spa in California on February 24-28.
The challenge for the European Tour, of course, is to maintain the progress achieved over the first 27 years. We know that with the broader depth in player strength we can look forward to more of our Members realising their ambitions to lock horns with the best players in the world and, as we have seen during the 1990s, record numbers of European Tour Members are now competing in the major championships.
We know, too, that we will see 24 of the leading players at The Country Club, Brookline, in September when Europe seek to win the Ryder Cup a record third successive time and to hold the trophy for the sixth time in eight attempts.
Without question the superb partnership that has been in place between the European Tour and Volvo since 1988, and which was recently extended through to and including the 2002 season, has been vital to the development of the European Tour. We take this opportunity to congratulate and thank Volvo for their marvellous support and, indeed, all the promoters and sponsors who, through long term commitment, enhance our policy of opportunity and incentive.
This policy has thrived from the appointment in October 1, 1971, of John Jacobs, the first Tournament Director General of the European Tour. His inspirational direction determined that the Continent of Europe would play an increasingly important role in the development of the game. John laid the foundation for the growth of the European Tour, and the globalisation of golf, and it is no surprise that he began this year by once again coaching the stars of tomorrow at the European Tour’’s Training School (MacGregor Week) in Spain where successful graduates from the European Challenge Tour and the Qualifying School gathered together last week.
This week the 1999 European Tour programme of 37 Volvo Order of Merit tournaments begins with the Alfred Dunhill South African PGA Championship at Houghton Golf Club in Johannesburg on January 14-17. Prize money growth will again be a feature of the majority of the regular Tour tournaments while the Seniors and Challenge Tours will also offer outstanding schedules with increasing rewards. More than £40 million in prize money will be available among the full playing schedules of all three Tours which compares with European Tour total prize money of £1,442,220 in 1979 and £13,562,578 in 1989.
Now we can look forward to another superb year on the fairways. It is conceivable that at the WGC - American Express Stroke Play Championship at Valderrama on November 4-7 we could crown the winner of the Volvo Order of Merit, the leader of the US PGA Tour Money List and the Official World Golf Ranking number one on the same Sunday. It would be a wonderful way to bring the curtain down on a Century of Golf.
