2016 European Tour Schedule

2016 European Tour Schedule has been published HERE
Final Series has dropped the HSBC - but the event is still on the tour calendar. Nedbank Golf Challenge steps up to replace BMW Masters.
So if you are going well, final four tournaments read - HSBC Champions (China), Turkish Airlines (Turkey), Nedbank (South Africa) DP World Tour Championship (Dubai). Fair few air miles to be earned in that run of events.

I make that about 38,000 km (assuming you start in Portugal and return to the UK afterwards)...or more or less a circumnavigation of the globe.

Not surprised since Emirates and Turkish Airlines are major sponsors of the ET. Still think the ET could need a logistics coodinator though - maybe FedEx?

20 events in Europe. And its still called the European Tour. I know its about following the money, Why not merge with the other tours into a world tour, and break it into divisions.

beninho wrote:20 events in Europe. And its still called the European Tour.

down from 23 events this year...

beninho wrote:20 events in Europe. And its still called the European Tour. I know its about following the money, Why not merge with the other tours into a world tour, and break it into divisions.

Technically I think it's actually 19 as Antalya, Turkey is south of the Bosphorus and (geographically at least) considered to be in Asia.

/Pedant.

Which events have disappeared. I can see no mention of Madeira, and it's disappointing that the Scottish Gleneagles and Wales Open events haven't been restored, but what else is missing?

Madeira was on the 2015 schedule twice (it was rescheduled). Russia has also disappeared.

Kafelnikov will be gutted.

I wonder if those two will turn up on the Challenge Tour, Madeira was a hybrid anyway?
Addition by subtraction?

Bridgestone Invitational as it clashes with the French Open

I don't think that was going to be played in "Europe" though, so wasn't part of the reduction from 23 to 20 as described by pedro etc above.

Here's a synopsis of the 2016 ET schedule changes...

Bottom line: While stabilized in some areas is still in "disarray" in others.  

The net effect is the ET will have 45 events next year... and one of those is the NedBank playing twice... which means in effect they have 44.   That compares to 48 this year...

For 2015-16 the ET Gained 2 OWGR rated events...

Australian PGA Championship
Perth International

ET Added 3 more UNOFFICIAL events

EurAsia Cup presented by DRB-HICOM (team event played every other year)
Olympic Men's Golf (Will have OWGR points but not official)
Ryder Cup

But on the downside.... for 2016 the ET loses 4 events and 2 more are absent the schedule for the 2015-16 season.

Gone from the schedule:

Africa Open (19 level event)
Madeira Islands Open (18)
M2M Russina Open (24)
BMW Masters (50 this year, but NedBank could improve to be at least close if not match or exceed this)

These 2 events are OFF the schedule but expected to return for the next season...

UBS Hong Kong Open (34 this year played before HSBC, UBS is in with multi-year agreement and thus this one will return in 2016 part of the early 2016-17 schedule

WGC-Bridgestone (Is not being sanctioned by the ET for 2016 only as due to Olympic schedule scramble, it plays opposite the 100th French Open. But will be back on the schedule the next year.)

So taking all the schedule/calendar/season-shift issues into account... the ET is temporarily down 4 events to 44 this upcoming season... but effectively down 2 events to 46.

Presumably the nedbank isn't an invitational anymore?

Looks more like a rationalization than a reduction. Madeira was never really a Tour event (more Challenge Tour) and not many went to Russia.
Would still be good to get Wales and Gleneagles back. Take care of that Mr.Pelley, if you would.

McLaren wrote:Presumably the nedbank isn't an invitational anymore?

Correct.
http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2016/tournamentid=2015094/news/newsid=278480.html#jCKbCdzKFEPWPD73.97

Strong... or should I say confident words from ET CEO Keith Pelley regarding the future of the European Tour.  But perhaps more importantly, strong actions from Keith... or both Keith's, including COO Keith Waters efforts into the mix.

But I like what I've seen from those guys so far.  Pelley might be a bit on the "blustery" side of things... but that's OK.  If the CEO and COO aren't gonna exude confidence in the future, then who is?  And I think they're saying all the right things.  As I've said here before, it IS about putting the players first (which is apparently the new unofficial mantra at Virginia Water) and secondly its about building the individual strength of each of it's tournaments that results in the strength of a Tour overall.  

But saying it and doing it are two different things. I do believe the "host" model O'Grady and Rory worked out for the Irish Open is a good thing.. and all credit for Waters to understand the need to expand that to other events... like Els as an official host of the S.A. Open, Lawrie with his event, Poulter/Luke or the player de ano hosting the British Masters.  

And IMO the membership change is a great move.  Those "name" dual tour players like Luke, Els, GMac, Poulter and even Casey who are hovering in and out of top-50 and qualification for the 8 co-sanctions are important to have involved in Europe. And the ET just can't afford to lose any more members to tour full time on the PGAT... This puts a halt to that IMO... at least temporarily.

But I'm still having a real struggle trying to figure out how this proposed merger with the Asian Tour is necessarily a good thing and fits the long term goals.  I do see the possibility of building some purses in Asia, and I do recognize that if nothing else stopping the PGAT from in effect taking over the Asian Tour is in effect a win.  But I still don't see how building what may be an even more "nomadic" schedule does anything but hurt the ET... at least among the top players.

For the sake of argument... let's say somehow the ET was successful in building purses of maybe a dozen key events to PGAT levels in say the next decade. It still doesn't change the biggest thing the PGAT has going for it over the ET. It's the lifestyle advantages to living in and playing mostly in America. Generally living and playing in the U.S. a dollar goes much further in buying luxury homes, cars, private school education for the kids in the U.S. than it does in Europe. Not to mention a generally more favorable tax environment compared to Europe.

Then add in the perks of a PGA Tour that is organized by geography and easy to accomplish without having to deal with the flight-time/baggage/customs/cultural/language/time-zone issues of playing "abroad".

Other than going to Hawaii and the UK for the Open... regardless of where in the U.S. a PGAT player lives, he's rarely if ever more than 2500 flight miles and 5 hours flight time gate to gate to any tournament venue on the schedule... and that's going from N.Y. to the West Coast. Now contrast that to the Euro Tour... I read an astonishing number above about the air miles a Euro based player would need to rack up to play the last 4 events on next year's ET schedule.... 38,000 km (or about 23,000 miles) in 4 weeks?   That's just nuts.

Contrast that to a guy living in America and playing the FedEx Cup playoffs. Even if based on the West Coast he's going to travel about 9300 miles in 5 weeks including the miles to fly home home for a week off in the middle of the playoffs. If he starts in Texas he cuts that by as much as 35% and starting in Florida he cuts that in half.

Now I get that anybody would prefer to live at home and near family... so for a European, staying home always has that appeal. But that top Euro is still going to need to make between 3-5 trips to the states to play the 8 co-sanctions... that's a full third of many of their schedules. And when it gets to having wife and kids... living somewhere where the player can easily get home to see them becomes more important than being close to mum and dad and siblings. It's just so much easier to do when based in the U.S.

Can anyone tell me who the Aussie PGA is part of the ET? Just did a quick count and struggled to find more than 10 ET regulars and a handful of challenge tour players in the field. Farcial?