1991 European Tour

The 1991 European Tour, titled as the 1991 Volvo Tour for sponsorship reasons, was the 20th official season of golf tournaments known as the PGA European Tour.[1]

1991 European Tour season
Duration7 February 1991 (1991-02-07) – 27 October 1991 (1991-10-27)
Number of official events34[lower-alpha 1]
Most wins3:
Wales Ian Woosnam
Order of MeritSpain Seve Ballesteros
Golfer of the YearSpain Seve Ballesteros
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the YearSweden Per-Ulrik Johansson
1990
1992

The season was originally made up of 38 tournaments counting for the Order of Merit, and eight non-counting "Approved Special Events".

The Order of Merit was won by Spain's Seve Ballesteros for the sixth time, having previously won in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1986 and 1988.

Changes for 1991

There were several changes from the previous season, with the return of both the Catalan Open and the Jersey Open; the addition of the Girona Open; the loss of the Tenerife Open; and the Scandinavian Enterprise Open and the PLM Open were merged to create the Scandinavian Masters.[2]

After provisionally being scheduled for 14–17 October, the Portuguese Open was moved to 21–24 March, taking the venue and dates of the Atlantic Open, which was lost from the calendar.[3] Also before the season started, three more tournaments were removed from the schedule; the Dubai Desert Classic was cancelled due to the Gulf War, the El Bosque Open was cancelled due to lack of sponsorship, and the AGF Open was cancelled as sponsors sought to replace the event's promotion company.[4] These changes resulted in a reduction to 34 counting tournaments for the Order of Merit.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1991 season.

Date Tournament Host country Purse
(£)
Winner[lower-alpha 2] OWGR
points
Notes
10 Feb Dubai Desert Classic UAE Cancelled
17 Feb El Bosque Open Spain Cancelled
24 Feb Girona Open Spain 250,000 England Steven Richardson (1) 24 New tournament
3 Mar Fujitsu Mediterranean Open France 400,000 Wales Ian Woosnam (17) 38
10 Mar Open de Baleares Spain 275,000 South Africa Gavan Levenson (2) 30
17 Mar Open Catalonia Spain 300,000 Spain José María Olazábal (10) 32
24 Mar Vinho Verde Atlantic Open Portugal Cancelled
24 Mar Portuguese Open Portugal 275,000 England Steven Richardson (2) 16
31 Mar Volvo Open di Firenze Italy 200,000 Sweden Anders Forsbrand (2) 16
7 Apr AGF Open France Cancelled
14 Apr Masters Tournament United States US$1,350,000 Wales Ian Woosnam (18) 100 Major championship[lower-alpha 3]
14 Apr Jersey European Airways Open Jersey 200,000 Scotland Sam Torrance (14) 16
21 Apr Benson & Hedges International Open England 400,000 Germany Bernhard Langer (24) 52
28 Apr Madrid Open Spain 275,000 England Andrew Sherborne (1) 20
5 May Credit Lyonnais Cannes Open France 350,000 Northern Ireland David Feherty (4) 24
12 May Peugeot Spanish Open Spain 350,000 Argentina Eduardo Romero (3) 48
19 May Lancia Martini Italian Open Italy 325,000 Australia Craig Parry (3) 42
27 May Volvo PGA Championship England 500,000 Spain Seve Ballesteros (44) 64 Flagship event
2 Jun Dunhill British Masters England 450,000 Spain Seve Ballesteros (45) 42
9 Jun Murphy's Cup England 350,000 Zimbabwe Tony Johnstone (3) 34
16 Jun Renault Belgian Open Belgium 250,000 Sweden Per-Ulrik Johansson (1) 16
16 Jun U.S. Open United States US$1,300,000 United States Payne Stewart (n/a) 100 Major championship[lower-alpha 3]
23 Jun Carroll's Irish Open Ireland 375,000 England Nick Faldo (22) 48
30 Jun Peugeot Open de France France 400,000 Argentina Eduardo Romero (4) 42
6 Jul Torras Monte Carlo Open France 400,000 Wales Ian Woosnam (19) 44
13 Jul Bell's Scottish Open Scotland 500,000 Australia Craig Parry (4) 56
21 Jul The Open Championship England 900,000 Australia Ian Baker-Finch (2) 100 Major championship
28 Jul Heineken Dutch Open Netherlands 500,000 United States Payne Stewart (n/a) 44
4 Aug Scandinavian Masters Sweden 600,000 Scotland Colin Montgomerie (2) 48 New tournament
11 Aug European Pro-Celebrity England 250,000 England Paul Broadhurst (2) 16 Pro-Am
11 Aug PGA Championship United States US$1,350,000 United States John Daly (1) 100 Major championship[lower-alpha 3]
18 Aug NM English Open England 450,000 England David Gilford (1) 30
25 Aug Volvo German Open Germany 525,000 Zimbabwe Mark McNulty (11) 30
1 Sep GA European Open England 500,000 Australia Mike Harwood (5) 52
8 Sep Canon European Masters Swiss Open Switzerland 450,000 South Africa Jeff Hawkes (1) 36
15 Sep Trophée Lancôme France 450,000 New Zealand Frank Nobilo (2) 56 Limited-field event
22 Sep Epson Grand Prix of Europe Wales 450,000 Spain José María Olazábal (11) 38
29 Sep Mitsubishi Austrian Open Austria 250,000 England Mark Davis (1) 16
6 Oct Mercedes German Masters Germany 500,000 Germany Bernhard Langer (25) 50
13 Oct BMW International Open Germany 400,000 Scotland Sandy Lyle (16) 38
27 Oct Volvo Masters Spain 600,000 Australia Rodger Davis (6) 52 Tour Championship

Unofficial events

The following events were sanctioned by the European Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official.

Date Tournament Host country Purse
(£)
Winner(s) OWGR
points
Notes
17 Sep Equity & Law Challenge England 150,000 Scotland Brian Marchbank n/a
29 Sep Ryder Cup United States n/a Team USA n/a Team event
13 Oct Dunhill Cup Scotland US$1,700,000 Team Sweden n/a Team event
20 Oct Toyota World Match Play Championship England 500,000 Spain Seve Ballesteros 48 Limited-field event
3 Nov World Cup Italy US$1,100,000 Sweden Anders Forsbrand and
Sweden Per-Ulrik Johansson
n/a Team event
World Cup Individual Trophy Wales Ian Woosnam n/a
10 Nov Benson & Hedges Trophy Spain 200,000 Sweden Helen Alfredsson and
Sweden Anders Forsbrand
n/a Team event
10 Nov Asahi Glass Four Tours World Championship Australia US$1,150,000 Team Europe n/a Team event
22 Dec Johnnie Walker World Golf Championship Jamaica US$2,500,000 United States Fred Couples 64 Limited-field event

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was titled as the Volvo Order of Merit and was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in Pound sterling.[1][5][6]

PositionPlayerPrize money (£)
1Spain Seve Ballesteros545,353
2England Steven Richardson393,155
3Germany Bernhard Langer372,703
4Scotland Colin Montgomerie343,575
5Australia Craig Parry328,116
6Australia Rodger Davis317,441
7Spain José María Olazábal302,270
8Wales Ian Woosnam257,433
9England David Gilford249,240
10England Nick Faldo245,892

Awards

AwardWinner
Golfer of the YearSpain Seve Ballesteros
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the YearSweden Per-Ulrik Johansson

See also

Notes

  1. A further four tournaments were scheduled but were cancelled.
  2. The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of European Tour events they had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for European Tour members and are inclusive of the three United States-based major championships which were included on the schedule for the first time in 1998, with earlier editions having retrospectively been recognised as official tour wins. Victories in "Approved Special Events" are not recognised as official tour wins.
  3. Unofficial money event at the time, but retrospectively counted as an official win.

References

  1. "Tour History". PGA European Tour. Archived from the original on 22 July 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  2. Platts, Mitchell (13 October 1990). "Tour offers £20m pickings". The Times. p. 30. Retrieved 25 April 2020 via The Times Digital Archive.
  3. "European Tour itinerary". The Observer. London, England. 24 February 1991. p. 46. Retrieved 25 April 2020 via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Sport in brief | Golf". The Guardian. London, England. 16 January 1991. p. 16. Retrieved 25 April 2020 via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Weekend results | Golf". The Guardian. London, England. 28 October 1991. p. 19. Retrieved 26 April 2020 via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Final Scores from Valderrama". The Times. 28 October 1991. p. 40. Retrieved 26 April 2020 via The Times Digital Archive.
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