2007 European season will break records
Monday, 9 October 2006The addition of two new tournaments and the return of others mean the 2007 European Tour season will be a record breaker.
There will be a minimum of 50 events played, after the MasterCard Masters in Australia and the Portugal Masters were introduced for the first time, while the Blue Chip New Zealand Open and the Mercedes Benz Championship are brought back.
A reworking of the schedule means that the 2007 season starts this November with the HSBC Champions Tournament in Shanghai and ends 12 months later with the Volvo Masters at Valderrama in Spain.
Keith Waters, director of international policy for the European Tour, said: 'We share with all sports the incentive to break records and we are naturally both delighted and encouraged to announce, that for the first time in our 36-year history, there will be more than 50 tournaments on the schedule.
'This can be attributed to many components, not least of all the considerable strength in depth of our membership, but we would like to particularly thank all promoters and sponsors for their superb support which enabled us to assemble the 2007 European Tour international schedule.'
The Portugal Masters will be staged at Victoria Clube de Golfe in Vilamoura next October and is the first in a minimum three-year arrangement.
Significant date changes see the BMW International Open in Munich moved to June 21-24, the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles switch to August 30-September 2 and the Quinn Direct British Masters at The Belfry put back to September 20-23.
The HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, which boasts the largest first prize in golf at £1million, reverts to its former traditional dates of October 11-14.
