Welcome to a New Year on The European Tour International Schedule. The arrival of 2002 heralds further opportunity to look forward with anticipation to a full and exciting time ahead in the coming season.
The 2001 European Tour delivered record prize money of 97,145,300 euro (£60,400,973), even allowing for the understandable loss of the $5 million prize fund in the World Golf Championships - American Express Championship. All being well, and pending a settling down process in the global markets, we anticipate further orderly progress in 2002.
As we prepare for the latest edition of the Bell's South African Open at The Country Club in Durban this week - the world's second oldest championship following the Open Championship - we can look forward to 45 events on the Volvo Order of Merit to be played in 21 different countries. This is in addition to special approved events in the WGC - EMC2 World Cup in Mexico, the Cisco World Match Play Championship at Wentworth Club and the second edition of The Seve Trophy at Druids Glen in Ireland.
The number 'two' has been significant in the development of The European Tour. It was in 1972 that the embryonic Tour envisioned by John Jacobs delivered the infant product to the sporting world with a total prize fund of 390,922 euro (£279,230). We think it is worth pointing out that in 2001, The Scottish Open at Loch Lomond was worth £2.2 million with a first prize significantly greater than the sum total of the 1972 season, namely 610,998 euro (£366,660).
In 1982, the figure had risen to 2,598,365 euro (£1,855,975) and, with the benefit of a further decade of prosperity and growth, to 24,521,109 euro (£17,515,078) in 1992, during a difficult period in which the Gulf War affected our business.
The European Tour, has, of course, grown considerably in recent years as illustrated by the above figures, 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 prize money, from Retief Goosen, who claimed the Harry Vardon Trophy with 2,862,806 euro (£1,779,975) to Christian Cévaër who took 115th place with 161,617 euro (£100,487). This was always an ambition of The Tour's. It was reasonable to assume we would eventually get to that figure but that we reached that milestone in 2001, our 30th anniversary season, was especially satisfying.
It was good to see the title of The Scottish Open at Loch Lomond reinstated after an absence of five years and, at extremely short notice, to welcome the Cannes Open back onto The European Tour International Schedule to replace the Estoril Open, which was cancelled just two weeks before its scheduled date. We think the ability to source a tournament within that time scale exemplifies the type of dedication and teamwork that exists between The European Tour and our promoters and sponsors.
The inclusion of the BMW Asian Open and the Omega Hong Kong Open to launch the start of the 2002 Volvo Order of Merit race has confirmed that The European Tour remains a thriving and truly international product and we enjoy a strong relationship with our partners on the Asian PGA, the Australasian PGA and the Southern Africa PGA as evidenced by the fact that there are now nine joint or tri-sanctioned tournaments on The 2002 European Tour International Schedule.
This year promises to be another outstanding one, with the re-arranged 34th Ryder Cup Matches at The De Vere Belfry taking centre stage from September 27-29. We also look forward to our Members participating in increasing numbers in the Majors and World Golf Championships, and to their successes.
