Professional golf tours
Encyclopedia
Professional golf tours are the means by which otherwise unconnected professional
golf
tournaments are organised into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women, with each tour being based in a specific geographical region, although some of their tournaments may be held in other parts of the world.
Golf is one of the more lucrative sports in the world for both men and women, but it has a very different structure from other sports, especially team sports. Almost all (at least 95%) professional golfers make their main income as club or teaching professionals, rather than from competition. "Touring professionals", also known as "Tournament golfers" or "Pro golfers", who make their income from prize money and endorsements, are a small elite within the profession. The very best golfers make up to 8-figure incomes in U.S. dollars from tournament play alone; when endorsement income is taken into account, Tiger Woods
is the highest earning sportsman in the world, according to Forbes magazine, retaining this status in 2010 even after a tumultuous year in which he failed to win a tournament and lost his marriage and many of his sponsors after his 2009 sex scandal.
For the less successful, trying to make a living from tournament golf can be precarious: tournaments have entry fees and the associated costs of travel and lodging, plus the hire of a caddy
. Moreover, most tournaments have a "cut" after the second of four rounds, in which a minimum aggregate score is selected to eliminate roughly half the field, and advance the remaining to pairings for the final rounds. Only those players remaining after the cut earn any prize money at all. Thus, after costs are taken into account, lesser-known tournament golfers who are playing erratically (and do not have a steady income from endorsements) can be in dire financial straits in a bad year.
The PGA Tour
was the pioneer of the tour system, and its establishment date is not very clearly defined. The PGA of America was established in 1916. Lists of players with the most wins in each season are available from that year, and career win totals
are based on results from 1916 onwards. However the idea of a "tour" had not firmly crystallised at that time and several important developments came much later. Bob Harlow
was named manager of the PGA Tournament Bureau in 1930, the first "playing pros" organisation was formed in 1932, and money lists are available from 1934. However the PGA Tour itself dates the formal establishment of the Tour to 1968, when the "Tournament Players Division" split from the PGA of America.http://www.pgatour.com/info/company/pgatour_history The dates of establishment of the other key tours include: LPGA Tour (1950); European Tour
(1972); Japan Golf Tour
(1973); Asian Tour
(1995). The term "circuit" is often used to describe professional tournament golf in the pre-Tour era in any given region. For example, before the foundation of the Asian Tour, tournaments in Asia were part of the "Asian circuit".
As professional golf has continued to expand developmental tours such as the Challenge Tour
(1986) and the Nationwide Tour
(1990; originally called the Ben Hogan Tour), and senior tours such as the Champions Tour
(1980; originally the Senior PGA Tour) and the European Seniors Tour
(1992) have been established to give more golfers the opportunity to play on a tour, and to take advantage of the willingness of sponsors and broadcasters to fund an ever increasing number of tournaments.
or an independent tour organisation which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. Most of the major tours are player controlled organisations whose commercial objective is to maximise the income of their members by maximising prize money. The larger tours have a tournament almost every week through most of the year.
Each tour has "members" who have earned their "tour cards", meaning they are entitled to play in most of the tour's events. A golfer can become a member of a leading tour by succeeding in an entry tournament, usually called a Qualifying School
("Q-School"); or, by achieving a designated level of success in its tournaments when competing as an invited non-member; or, much rarer, by having enough notable achievements on other tours to make them a desirable member. Membership of some of the lesser tours is open to any registered professional who pays an entry fee.
There are enormous differences in the financial rewards offered by the various golf tours, so players on all but the top few tours always aspire to move up if they can. For example, the PGA Tour
, which is the first-tier tour in the United States, offers nearly a hundred times as much prize money each season as the third-tier NGA Pro Golf Tour
. The hierarchy of tours in financial terms, as of 2011, is as follows:
In the 1990s the Japan Golf Tour was the third richest tour, but in recent years its number of tournaments has been steadily contracting from a peak of 44 in 1990 to 24 in 2007, and tournament purses have risen only slowly. The (U.S.) LPGA saw a substantial decline in financial rewards in the late 2000s; when its commissioner Carolyn Bivens
was forced to resign by a player revolt in 2009, it had only 14 events locked in for 2010. Its 2010 schedule was ultimately unveiled with 24 events, down from 34 as recently as 2008. The late-2000s economic crisis has not yet had a major impact on the PGA Tour, mainly because most of its tournament sponsors were locked in through 2010; there was media speculation that the expiration of those sponsorship contracts in 2011 would see substantial changes in the landscape of that tour. However, this speculation proved misplaced or at least premature, as the 2011 season
was announced with only one less official money event than in 2010
, with virtually identical prize money. The Asian Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour enjoyed rapid growth in prize money in the early 2000s, and have been less affected by the economic crisis than the U.S. LPGA.
, the PGA European Tour
, the Japan Golf Tour
, PGA Tour of Australasia
, and the Southern Africa based Sunshine Tour
. In 1999 they were joined by the Asian Tour
and a year later the Canadian Tour
became an associate member. The South and Central America based Tour de las Américas
became the federation's second associate member in 2007.
In 2009 the federation announced a major expansion, as the Tour de las Américas and the Canadian Tour became full members alongside nine new members. They were the China Golf Association, the Korea Professional Golfers' Association and the Professional Golf Tour of India as well as the organizers of the six major Ladies tours, the LPGA Tour
, the Ladies European Tour
, the Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour
, the Japan LPGA
, the Korean LPGA
, and the Ladies Asian Golf Tour
.
The International Federation of PGA Tours founded the World Golf Championships
in 1999 and sanction the Official World Golf Ranking.
In addition, the OneAsia Tour
, founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association, the Japan Golf Tour, the Korean Golf Association and the Korean PGA, offers world ranking points.
The richest tour that does not offer ranking points was until 2011 the Korean Tour
. Below this level, the tours still do not offer ranking points, and the prize money on offer will be at a level that allows only a few of the members, or perhaps none of them at all, to make their main income from playing on that tour alone. Some of the players will also play on other tours when they are able to, and others will be club or teaching professionals who play tournament golf part time.
The official development tour in Japan is the Japan Challenge Tour
. Other regional tours include the Professional Golf Tour of India and the China Golf Tour.
The United States and Europe have additional tours for players who haven't made it onto the Nationwide Tour or the Challenge Tour. At this level the prize money is partly funded by entrance fees and only the most successful players will win enough to do more than cover their expenses: the emphasis is very much on moving up to a higher tour.
In Europe there is a well-defined third tier of tours which are independently operated but offer promotion to the Challenge Tour for the most successful players. The four third level tours, collectively known as the Satellite Tour, are the PGA EuroPro Tour
, the Alps Tour
, the EPD Tour
and the Nordic League
. Below this level there are various minor professional tournaments, some of which are organised into series by national golf associations, for example the men's leg of the Swedish Golf Association's SAS Masters Tour (formerly the Telia Tour), which is now a part of the Nordic League competition.
In the United States the lower-level tours do not offer direct promotion to the Nationwide Tour so there is not a well defined third tier. The larger regional tours include the eGolf Professional Tour, Gateway Tour
, and NGA Pro Golf Tour
and there is a constantly changing roster of small "mini-tours". The term mini-tour is colloquial and not easy to define with the larger regional tours carefully avoiding applying the term to themselves. Some of the smaller and lower cost tours prefer the term "developmental tour" asserting that real pro golf with large audiences and great financial opportunities for its players starts at the Nationwide Tour level. Either way, below Nationwide Tour level there is little possibility of earning a living from the prize money alone and players compete to gain competitive experience. Some are employed as club or teaching professionals and play tournaments part time, while some may have sponsors or family backing.
There have also been some well known sportsmen from other sports who, after retiring as wealthy men while still at an age when elite golfers are in their prime, have tried their luck as tournament golfers on the developmental tours, but none of them have made it into golf's elite so far. Examples include Ivan Lendl
and Roy Wegerle
. Two prominent professional athletes from other sports, however, have had modest success on the Champions Tour
for golfers 50 and over. Former National Football League
quarterback John Brodie
won one tournament and had 12 top-10 finishes on that tour, and former Major League Baseball
pitcher Rick Rhoden
has had three top-10 finishes.
. The two main senior tours are:
players. There are currently six first tier regional tours:
The LPGA Tour is the dominant tour, and is the main playing base of almost all the world's leading players. The LPGA of Japan Tour is the second richest tour, and retains many of its leading players. The best players from the other tours usually move to the LPGA Tour at the earliest opportunity.
The second tier women's professional tour in the United States
is the LPGA Futures Tour. Although there is little opportunity for women's developmental play on the professional level in the United States besides the Futures Tour, women are welcome to compete against men on some mini-tours. Sweden, which is the European country where women's golf is most popular, has its own SAS Masters Tour (formerly the Telia Tour), which serves as a feeder tour for the Ladies European Tour. The LPGA of Japan operates the Step Up Tour as a feeder for its main tour, and the LPGA of Korea operates two mini-tours that effectively serve as feeders for its main tour.
In 2001 the U.S. based Women's Senior Golf Tour was founded, featuring golfers 45 and over. In 2006 it was rebranded as the Legends Tour
. The LPGA of Korea now operates the Akia Tour, a four-event mini-tour for the same age group. The Moonlightgolf.com Tour in central Florida since 1992, offers women the opportunity to develop through frequent low cost pro/scratch events.
Professional golfer
In golf the distinction between amateurs and professionals is rigorously maintained. An amateur who breaches the rules of amateur status may lose his or her amateur status. A golfer who has lost his or her amateur status may not play in amateur competitions until amateur status has been reinstated;...
golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
tournaments are organised into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women, with each tour being based in a specific geographical region, although some of their tournaments may be held in other parts of the world.
Golf is one of the more lucrative sports in the world for both men and women, but it has a very different structure from other sports, especially team sports. Almost all (at least 95%) professional golfers make their main income as club or teaching professionals, rather than from competition. "Touring professionals", also known as "Tournament golfers" or "Pro golfers", who make their income from prize money and endorsements, are a small elite within the profession. The very best golfers make up to 8-figure incomes in U.S. dollars from tournament play alone; when endorsement income is taken into account, Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
is the highest earning sportsman in the world, according to Forbes magazine, retaining this status in 2010 even after a tumultuous year in which he failed to win a tournament and lost his marriage and many of his sponsors after his 2009 sex scandal.
For the less successful, trying to make a living from tournament golf can be precarious: tournaments have entry fees and the associated costs of travel and lodging, plus the hire of a caddy
Caddy
In golf, a caddy is the person who carries a player's bag and clubs, and gives insightful advice and moral support. A good caddy is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with the best strategy in playing it. This includes knowing overall yardage, pin...
. Moreover, most tournaments have a "cut" after the second of four rounds, in which a minimum aggregate score is selected to eliminate roughly half the field, and advance the remaining to pairings for the final rounds. Only those players remaining after the cut earn any prize money at all. Thus, after costs are taken into account, lesser-known tournament golfers who are playing erratically (and do not have a steady income from endorsements) can be in dire financial straits in a bad year.
History
The golf tour system evolved more by trial and error than by design. In the early days of professional golf in each region of the world each professional tournament was established by a separate golf club, golf organisation or commercial sponsor. As the number of tournaments increased the most talented professional golfers concentrated mainly on playing in tournaments rather than on club professional and golf instruction work. Once a good number of tournaments were being played in a region each year they were formalised into a "tour", which was supervised by a single organisation, although individual tournaments continue to be run by separate bodies in many cases.The PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
was the pioneer of the tour system, and its establishment date is not very clearly defined. The PGA of America was established in 1916. Lists of players with the most wins in each season are available from that year, and career win totals
Golfers with most PGA Tour wins
This is a list of golfers who have won five or more official money events on the PGA Tour.Players under 50 years of age are shown in bold. On his 50th birthday a golfer becomes eligible to compete on the Champions Tour, and he is unlikely to add to his tally of PGA Tour wins after that date This is...
are based on results from 1916 onwards. However the idea of a "tour" had not firmly crystallised at that time and several important developments came much later. Bob Harlow
Bob Harlow
Bob Harlow was an important figure in the development of professional golf in the United States.Harlow was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He began his working life as a journalist, before becoming manager of Walter Hagen, then the biggest draw in golf, in 1921...
was named manager of the PGA Tournament Bureau in 1930, the first "playing pros" organisation was formed in 1932, and money lists are available from 1934. However the PGA Tour itself dates the formal establishment of the Tour to 1968, when the "Tournament Players Division" split from the PGA of America.http://www.pgatour.com/info/company/pgatour_history The dates of establishment of the other key tours include: LPGA Tour (1950); European Tour
PGA European Tour
The PGA European Tour is an organization which operates the three leading men's professional golf tours in Europe: the elite European Tour, the European Seniors Tour and the developmental Challenge Tour. Its headquarters are at Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England...
(1972); Japan Golf Tour
Japan Golf Tour
The Japan Golf Tour is a prominent golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006 it offers the third highest annual prize fund out of the regular men's professional tours after the PGA Tour and the European Tour. However since the early 1990s, the growth in prize money has not kept pace with...
(1973); Asian Tour
Asian Tour
The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. The Asian Tour is administered from offices in Singapore...
(1995). The term "circuit" is often used to describe professional tournament golf in the pre-Tour era in any given region. For example, before the foundation of the Asian Tour, tournaments in Asia were part of the "Asian circuit".
As professional golf has continued to expand developmental tours such as the Challenge Tour
Challenge Tour
The Challenge Tour is the second tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and as with on the main European Tour and the European Seniors Tour, some of the events are played outside of Europe...
(1986) and the Nationwide Tour
Nationwide Tour
The Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level...
(1990; originally called the Ben Hogan Tour), and senior tours such as the Champions Tour
Champions Tour
The Champions Tour, a golf tour run by the PGA Tour, hosts a series of events annually in the United States and the United Kingdom for golfers 50 years of age and older. Many of the PGA Tour's most successful golfers have gone on to play on the Champions Tour.The Senior PGA Championship, founded in...
(1980; originally the Senior PGA Tour) and the European Seniors Tour
European Seniors Tour
The European Seniors Tour is a professional tour for male golfers aged 50 and over run by the PGA European Tour.The Tour was founded in 1992. In 2008 it had a total prize fund of €7,729,284, so it is much further behind the U.S.-based Champions Tour in relative prize money than the main European...
(1992) have been established to give more golfers the opportunity to play on a tour, and to take advantage of the willingness of sponsors and broadcasters to fund an ever increasing number of tournaments.
Structure of tour golf
There are more than twenty professional golf tours, each run by a PGAProfessional Golfers Association
Professional Golfers' Association, , is the usual term for a professional association in men's golf. It is often abbreviated to PGA...
or an independent tour organisation which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. Most of the major tours are player controlled organisations whose commercial objective is to maximise the income of their members by maximising prize money. The larger tours have a tournament almost every week through most of the year.
Each tour has "members" who have earned their "tour cards", meaning they are entitled to play in most of the tour's events. A golfer can become a member of a leading tour by succeeding in an entry tournament, usually called a Qualifying School
Qualifying school
In professional golf the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S. based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the tour for the following season, otherwise known as a...
("Q-School"); or, by achieving a designated level of success in its tournaments when competing as an invited non-member; or, much rarer, by having enough notable achievements on other tours to make them a desirable member. Membership of some of the lesser tours is open to any registered professional who pays an entry fee.
There are enormous differences in the financial rewards offered by the various golf tours, so players on all but the top few tours always aspire to move up if they can. For example, the PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
, which is the first-tier tour in the United States, offers nearly a hundred times as much prize money each season as the third-tier NGA Pro Golf Tour
NGA Pro Golf Tour
The National Golf Association Pro Golf Tour is a developmental men's professional golf tour in the United States. It includes approximately twenty 72-hole Pro Series events and three 54-hole Qualifying School Prep Series events each year throughout the US South and Midwest. The NGA Pro Golf Tour...
. The hierarchy of tours in financial terms, as of 2011, is as follows:
- Clear 1st: PGA TourPGA TourThe PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
- Clear 2nd: European TourPGA European TourThe PGA European Tour is an organization which operates the three leading men's professional golf tours in Europe: the elite European Tour, the European Seniors Tour and the developmental Challenge Tour. Its headquarters are at Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England...
- Clear 3rd: Champions TourChampions TourThe Champions Tour, a golf tour run by the PGA Tour, hosts a series of events annually in the United States and the United Kingdom for golfers 50 years of age and older. Many of the PGA Tour's most successful golfers have gone on to play on the Champions Tour.The Senior PGA Championship, founded in...
- Clear 4th: LPGA TourLPGAThe LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters is in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from...
- Fifth to seventh (in alphabetical order): Asian TourAsian TourThe Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. The Asian Tour is administered from offices in Singapore...
; Japan Golf TourJapan Golf TourThe Japan Golf Tour is a prominent golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006 it offers the third highest annual prize fund out of the regular men's professional tours after the PGA Tour and the European Tour. However since the early 1990s, the growth in prize money has not kept pace with...
; LPGA of Japan TourLPGA of Japan TourThe Japan LPGA Tour is a professional golf tour for women organised by the Ladies Professional Golfers' Association of Japan. It is the second richest women's golf tour in the world. The U.S.-based LPGA Tour is the most important women's tour, but the prize money gap has closed markedly since the...
In the 1990s the Japan Golf Tour was the third richest tour, but in recent years its number of tournaments has been steadily contracting from a peak of 44 in 1990 to 24 in 2007, and tournament purses have risen only slowly. The (U.S.) LPGA saw a substantial decline in financial rewards in the late 2000s; when its commissioner Carolyn Bivens
Carolyn Bivens
Carolyn Bivens was the commissioner of the LPGA from 2005 until her resignation on July 13, 2009...
was forced to resign by a player revolt in 2009, it had only 14 events locked in for 2010. Its 2010 schedule was ultimately unveiled with 24 events, down from 34 as recently as 2008. The late-2000s economic crisis has not yet had a major impact on the PGA Tour, mainly because most of its tournament sponsors were locked in through 2010; there was media speculation that the expiration of those sponsorship contracts in 2011 would see substantial changes in the landscape of that tour. However, this speculation proved misplaced or at least premature, as the 2011 season
2011 PGA Tour
The 2011 PGA Tour, the 44th season since the Tour became independent from the PGA of America, will consist of a total of 49 sanctioned events running from early January to late November...
was announced with only one less official money event than in 2010
2010 PGA Tour
The 2010 PGA Tour season ran from January 7 to November 14. The season consisted of 46 official money events. This included four major championships and three World Golf Championships, which are also sanctioned by the European Tour.-Schedule:...
, with virtually identical prize money. The Asian Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour enjoyed rapid growth in prize money in the early 2000s, and have been less affected by the economic crisis than the U.S. LPGA.
International Federation of PGA Tours
The International Federation of PGA Tours is an organization founded in 1996 to enable the world's leading tours to discuss common and global issues in professional golf. The founding members were the United States based PGA TourPGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
, the PGA European Tour
PGA European Tour
The PGA European Tour is an organization which operates the three leading men's professional golf tours in Europe: the elite European Tour, the European Seniors Tour and the developmental Challenge Tour. Its headquarters are at Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England...
, the Japan Golf Tour
Japan Golf Tour
The Japan Golf Tour is a prominent golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006 it offers the third highest annual prize fund out of the regular men's professional tours after the PGA Tour and the European Tour. However since the early 1990s, the growth in prize money has not kept pace with...
, PGA Tour of Australasia
PGA Tour of Australasia
The PGA Tour of Australasia is a professional golf tour for men. Official events on the tour count for World Golf Ranking points. The tour was formed in 1973 as the PGA Tour of Australia and adopted its current name in 1991....
, and the Southern Africa based Sunshine Tour
Sunshine Tour
The Sunshine Tour is a men's professional golf tour based in Southern Africa. For much of its history it was known either as the South African Tour or the FNB Tour, but it rebranded itself in an attempt to broaden its appeal...
. In 1999 they were joined by the Asian Tour
Asian Tour
The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. The Asian Tour is administered from offices in Singapore...
and a year later the Canadian Tour
Canadian Professional Golf Tour
The Canadian Professional Golf Tour is a men's professional golf tour headquartered in Oakville, Ontario. It was formally started in 1970 and was initially known as the Peter Jackson Tour....
became an associate member. The South and Central America based Tour de las Américas
Tour de las Americas
The Tour de las Américas is the men's professional golf tour for Latin America.Top level tournament golf in Latin America has had an unstable history. Some of the national open championships in the region are long established, but they did not traditionally form a coherent tour...
became the federation's second associate member in 2007.
In 2009 the federation announced a major expansion, as the Tour de las Américas and the Canadian Tour became full members alongside nine new members. They were the China Golf Association, the Korea Professional Golfers' Association and the Professional Golf Tour of India as well as the organizers of the six major Ladies tours, the LPGA Tour
LPGA
The LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters is in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from...
, the Ladies European Tour
Ladies European Tour
The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1979. It is based in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal structure which enables it to focus on maximising returns to its members through prize money,...
, the Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour
ALPG Tour
The ALPG Tour is a professional golf tour for women which is based in Australia. ALPG stands for "Australian Ladies Professional Golf".The ALPG was founded as the Ladies Professional Golf Association of Australia in 1972, and switched to its current name in 1991. The first events featured twelve...
, the Japan LPGA
LPGA of Japan Tour
The Japan LPGA Tour is a professional golf tour for women organised by the Ladies Professional Golfers' Association of Japan. It is the second richest women's golf tour in the world. The U.S.-based LPGA Tour is the most important women's tour, but the prize money gap has closed markedly since the...
, the Korean LPGA
LPGA of Korea Tour
The LPGA of Korea Tour is a South Korean professional golf tour for women. LPGA stands for Ladies Professional Golf Association; it is the independent LPGA of Korea which runs this tour, not the American LPGA...
, and the Ladies Asian Golf Tour
Ladies Asian Golf Tour
The Ladies Asian Golf Tour is a women's professional golf tour that was established in 2005. At that time there were five established women's professional tours in the world, of which two were in Asia, namely the LPGA of Japan Tour and the LPGA of Korea Tour. Japan and South Korea are two of the...
.
The International Federation of PGA Tours founded the World Golf Championships
World Golf Championships
The World Golf Championships are a group of four annual events for male professional golfers created by the International Federation of PGA Tours, with a fifth to be added in 2012...
in 1999 and sanction the Official World Golf Ranking.
Other men's tours
World ranking points are also awarded for good placings in events on two developmental tours:- Challenge TourChallenge TourThe Challenge Tour is the second tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and as with on the main European Tour and the European Seniors Tour, some of the events are played outside of Europe...
(second-tier tour to the European Tour) - Nationwide TourNationwide TourThe Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level...
(second-tier tour to the PGA Tour)
In addition, the OneAsia Tour
OneAsia Tour
OneAsia is a men's professional golf tour based in the Asia-Pacific region. The tour was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association, the Korean Golf Association and the Korean PGA. The Japan Golf Tour has been invited to participate in the...
, founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association, the Japan Golf Tour, the Korean Golf Association and the Korean PGA, offers world ranking points.
The richest tour that does not offer ranking points was until 2011 the Korean Tour
Korean Tour
The Korean Tour is a men's professional golf tour run by the Korea Professional Golfers' Association of South Korea. In 2011, it had total prize money of about US$14 million....
. Below this level, the tours still do not offer ranking points, and the prize money on offer will be at a level that allows only a few of the members, or perhaps none of them at all, to make their main income from playing on that tour alone. Some of the players will also play on other tours when they are able to, and others will be club or teaching professionals who play tournament golf part time.
The official development tour in Japan is the Japan Challenge Tour
Japan Challenge Tour
The Japan Challenge Tour is a series of developmental golf tournaments run by the Japan Golf Tour Organisation. It has been in operation since 1985...
. Other regional tours include the Professional Golf Tour of India and the China Golf Tour.
The United States and Europe have additional tours for players who haven't made it onto the Nationwide Tour or the Challenge Tour. At this level the prize money is partly funded by entrance fees and only the most successful players will win enough to do more than cover their expenses: the emphasis is very much on moving up to a higher tour.
In Europe there is a well-defined third tier of tours which are independently operated but offer promotion to the Challenge Tour for the most successful players. The four third level tours, collectively known as the Satellite Tour, are the PGA EuroPro Tour
PGA EuroPro Tour
The PGA EuroPro Tour is a men's developmental professional golf tour. It was created in 2002 by the merger of two older development tours, the EuroPro Tour and the PGA Mastercard Tour. It is based mainly in the United Kingdom, with a few events in other countries...
, the Alps Tour
Alps Tour
The Alps Tour is a developmental professional golf tour for men which is sanctioned by the national golf associations of France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Morocco. It is a third level tour, the highest level of men's golf in Europe being the European Tour, and the second level being the...
, the EPD Tour
EPD Tour
The EPD Tour is a developmental professional golf tour based in Germany. It is a third level tour, the highest level of men's golf in Europe being the European Tour, and the second level being the Challenge Tour...
and the Nordic League
Nordic League (golf)
The Nordic League is one of the four PGA European Tour-recognised third-tier men's professional golf tours that are collectively known as the Satellite Tour...
. Below this level there are various minor professional tournaments, some of which are organised into series by national golf associations, for example the men's leg of the Swedish Golf Association's SAS Masters Tour (formerly the Telia Tour), which is now a part of the Nordic League competition.
In the United States the lower-level tours do not offer direct promotion to the Nationwide Tour so there is not a well defined third tier. The larger regional tours include the eGolf Professional Tour, Gateway Tour
Gateway Tour
The Gateway Tour is a third-level men's professional golf tour headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona that runs tournaments in Arizona, California, and Florida. The top level of men's professional golf in the United States is the PGA Tour. The second level is the Nationwide Tour, which is the official...
, and NGA Pro Golf Tour
NGA Pro Golf Tour
The National Golf Association Pro Golf Tour is a developmental men's professional golf tour in the United States. It includes approximately twenty 72-hole Pro Series events and three 54-hole Qualifying School Prep Series events each year throughout the US South and Midwest. The NGA Pro Golf Tour...
and there is a constantly changing roster of small "mini-tours". The term mini-tour is colloquial and not easy to define with the larger regional tours carefully avoiding applying the term to themselves. Some of the smaller and lower cost tours prefer the term "developmental tour" asserting that real pro golf with large audiences and great financial opportunities for its players starts at the Nationwide Tour level. Either way, below Nationwide Tour level there is little possibility of earning a living from the prize money alone and players compete to gain competitive experience. Some are employed as club or teaching professionals and play tournaments part time, while some may have sponsors or family backing.
There have also been some well known sportsmen from other sports who, after retiring as wealthy men while still at an age when elite golfers are in their prime, have tried their luck as tournament golfers on the developmental tours, but none of them have made it into golf's elite so far. Examples include Ivan Lendl
Ivan Lendl
Ivan Lendl is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player. Originally from Czechoslovakia, Lendl became a United States citizen. He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s. He is considered to be one of the greatest tennis...
and Roy Wegerle
Roy Wegerle
Roy Wegerle is a South African-American former soccer player, who played for the United States in the 1994 and 1998 World Cups. He is one of two players who played in both the NASL and MLS; the other is Hugo Sánchez....
. Two prominent professional athletes from other sports, however, have had modest success on the Champions Tour
Champions Tour
The Champions Tour, a golf tour run by the PGA Tour, hosts a series of events annually in the United States and the United Kingdom for golfers 50 years of age and older. Many of the PGA Tour's most successful golfers have gone on to play on the Champions Tour.The Senior PGA Championship, founded in...
for golfers 50 and over. Former National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
quarterback John Brodie
John Brodie
John Riley Brodie is a former professional American football quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, and had a second career as a Senior PGA Tour professional golfer.-Early years and education:...
won one tournament and had 12 top-10 finishes on that tour, and former Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
pitcher Rick Rhoden
Rick Rhoden
Richard Alan Rhoden is a professional golfer and was a Major League Baseball pitcher. During his 16 year baseball career, he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers , Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros of the National League; and the New York Yankees of the American League.-Early years:Rhoden was...
has had three top-10 finishes.
Men's senior tours
Upon reaching age 50, male golfers are eligible to compete in senior tournaments. Golf is unique among sports in having high profile and lucrative competitions for players of this age group. Nearly all of the famous golfers who are eligible to compete in these events choose to do so, unless they are unable to for health reasons. A number of players win more than a million dollars in prize money each season, and once endorsements and other business activities are taken into account, a few of the "legends of golf" in this age group earn as much as any of the younger PGA Tour pros, other than Tiger WoodsTiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
. The two main senior tours are:
- Champions TourChampions TourThe Champions Tour, a golf tour run by the PGA Tour, hosts a series of events annually in the United States and the United Kingdom for golfers 50 years of age and older. Many of the PGA Tour's most successful golfers have gone on to play on the Champions Tour.The Senior PGA Championship, founded in...
(based in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) - European Seniors TourEuropean Seniors TourThe European Seniors Tour is a professional tour for male golfers aged 50 and over run by the PGA European Tour.The Tour was founded in 1992. In 2008 it had a total prize fund of €7,729,284, so it is much further behind the U.S.-based Champions Tour in relative prize money than the main European...
Women's tours
Women's professional golf is also organised by independent regional tours. Leading female golfers make incomes well over USD$1 million per year, more than most other women athletes other than top tennisTennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
players. There are currently six first tier regional tours:
- LPGA TourLPGAThe LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters is in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from...
(based in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) - Ladies European TourLadies European TourThe Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1979. It is based in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal structure which enables it to focus on maximising returns to its members through prize money,...
- LPGA of Japan TourLPGA of Japan TourThe Japan LPGA Tour is a professional golf tour for women organised by the Ladies Professional Golfers' Association of Japan. It is the second richest women's golf tour in the world. The U.S.-based LPGA Tour is the most important women's tour, but the prize money gap has closed markedly since the...
- LPGA of Korea TourLPGA of Korea TourThe LPGA of Korea Tour is a South Korean professional golf tour for women. LPGA stands for Ladies Professional Golf Association; it is the independent LPGA of Korea which runs this tour, not the American LPGA...
- Ladies Asian Golf TourLadies Asian Golf TourThe Ladies Asian Golf Tour is a women's professional golf tour that was established in 2005. At that time there were five established women's professional tours in the world, of which two were in Asia, namely the LPGA of Japan Tour and the LPGA of Korea Tour. Japan and South Korea are two of the...
, for Asia outside of Japan and Korea - ALPG TourALPG TourThe ALPG Tour is a professional golf tour for women which is based in Australia. ALPG stands for "Australian Ladies Professional Golf".The ALPG was founded as the Ladies Professional Golf Association of Australia in 1972, and switched to its current name in 1991. The first events featured twelve...
, based in AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
The LPGA Tour is the dominant tour, and is the main playing base of almost all the world's leading players. The LPGA of Japan Tour is the second richest tour, and retains many of its leading players. The best players from the other tours usually move to the LPGA Tour at the earliest opportunity.
The second tier women's professional tour in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
is the LPGA Futures Tour. Although there is little opportunity for women's developmental play on the professional level in the United States besides the Futures Tour, women are welcome to compete against men on some mini-tours. Sweden, which is the European country where women's golf is most popular, has its own SAS Masters Tour (formerly the Telia Tour), which serves as a feeder tour for the Ladies European Tour. The LPGA of Japan operates the Step Up Tour as a feeder for its main tour, and the LPGA of Korea operates two mini-tours that effectively serve as feeders for its main tour.
In 2001 the U.S. based Women's Senior Golf Tour was founded, featuring golfers 45 and over. In 2006 it was rebranded as the Legends Tour
Legends Tour
The Legends Tour, formerly known as the Women's Senior Golf Tour before the 2006 season, is a professional golf tour for women aged 45 and older. It is based in the United States, and is an offshoot of the main U.S. based women's tour, the LPGA Tour...
. The LPGA of Korea now operates the Akia Tour, a four-event mini-tour for the same age group. The Moonlightgolf.com Tour in central Florida since 1992, offers women the opportunity to develop through frequent low cost pro/scratch events.