Each year brings a new influx of players onto The European Tour. For some young - and not so young - professionals, this represents the realisation of a long held dream; for most of the graduates of the European Challenge Tour and the Qualifying School Finals, however, it is merely the first step along a road which can elevate them to the very pinnacle of the game.
Playing on The European Tour International Schedule in 2005 will be an enriching experience for those 15 Challenge Tour and 39 Qualifying School graduates, 24 of whom are discovering the diversity, competitiveness and camaraderie of the Tour for the first time.
The start of a new year affords us an opportunity to congratulate all those who successfully negotiated the season-long Challenge Tour Schedule or the tough examination of the Qualifying School route, and to welcome one and all onto The European Tour in 2005.
Life on Tour is extremely challenging and exceptionally rewarding and we on The European Tour take considerable pride in our aims of providing the best possible courses and prize money for our Members to play, and hopefully prosper, in a friendly but highly competitive atmosphere. There exists on The European Tour a team spirit second to none in the world of professional golf.
The Challenge Tour, under the leadership of Alain de Soultrait, continues to offer an outstanding arena for our Members to hone their games in readiness for The European Tour. We commend Lee Slattery of England, who finished strongly in the season-ending Bouygues Telecom Grand Final in Bordeaux to pip Alessandro Tadini of Italy as Number One in the Rankings with €95,979.
Slattery is one of six players from the Challenge Tour Rankings who will compete on The European Tour in 2005 for the first time along with fellow 'freshmen' Marc Cayeux of Zimbabwe (fourth), Matthew King of England (fifth), Swedes Johan Axgren and Leif Westerberg (sixth and seventh) and England's Oliver Wilson (15th).
They will all experience the special ambience of The European Tour along with the nine others who also performed with distinction to attain their cards, namely Tadini, England's Graeme Storm, Philip Archer (England), Henrik Nystrom (Sweden), Garry Houston (Wales), Mattias Eliasson (Sweden), David Drysdale (Scotland), Richard Bland (England) and Sweden's Fredrik Henge. Congratulations to all 15.
A total of 39 players achieved success through the Qualifying School Finals, of whom 18 will experience The European Tour for the first time. Peter Gustafsson became the third Swede in four years to pass the six round examination in first place and we congratulate him and fellow newcomers Francesco Molinari, Stuart Manley, Joakim Bäckström, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Richard Finch, Pelle Edberg, Lars Brovold, Niki Zitny, Stephen Browne, André Cruse, Titch Moore, Andrea Maestroni, Sam Little, Gregory Bourdy, Mark Sanders, Hernan Rey and David Griffiths.
A total of 15 countries are represented between the 15 graduates from the Challenge Tour and the 39 successful pupils from the Qualifying School Finals - further testimony of the globalisation of the game of golf.
It is indisputable that the game has grown internationally, and that point is emphasised by the fact that a new season on The European Tour and the Challenge Tour have already provided six new champions between them.
We congratulate Stephen Dodd of Wales, who made his breakthrough on the Tour after 15 seasons of competition and ten visits to the Qualifying School. He won the Volvo China Open in November, while Miguel Angel Jiménez of Spain captured the Omega Hong Kong Open and Charl Schwartzel of South Africa won the dunhill championship on home soil earlier this month, another first-time winner.
The Challenge Tour has combined with the Tour de las Americas once more to jointly sanction three events in recent weeks, with Argentina’’s Rafael Gomez winning the 47th Abierto Mexicano de Golf, England’’s Richard McEvoy the Panasonic Panama Open and American Brad Sutterfield the TIM Peru Open.
It is also opportune to welcome the eight players who gained their full cards for 2005 from the European Seniors Tour Qualifying School in Portugal and the 11 others who gained conditional cards. The top five players, including winner Bob Boyd of the USA, are all first timers on the Seniors Tour next season. Well done to all of them.
The three Tours resume in 2005 with exciting and varied schedules. The European Tour returns to Durban Country Club for the South African Airways Open from January 20-23; the Seniors Tour resumes in the familiar setting of Barbados for the DGM Barbados Open from March 2-4 while the Challenge Tour returns to action with the Costa Rica Open from February 10-13.
We offer our congratulations and thanks to all the Sponsors and Promoters whose contribution is vital to the success and continuing development of The European Tour, the European Challenge Tour and the European Seniors Tour.”
George O'Grady
Executive Director
The European Tour
