European Tour creates Rolex Series in major overhaul

The European Tour announced today that it will group at least seven of its marquee events together as the Rolex Series and will be scrapping the Final Series format beginning from 2017.

The BMW PGA Championship, unhealthy the Irish Open, salve the Scottish Open and the Italian Open will join the three Final Series events – the Turkish Airlines Open, seek the Nedbank Golf Challenge and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship – as part of the new schedule.

 The Race to Dubai, formerly known as the Order of Merit, is to remain. Each of the seven events will have a prize pot of at least $7 million.

European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said that eight or nine events could end up as part of the Rolex Series and he hopes to make it 10 events by 2018.

He added that the $7 million prize money”is the threshold that we felt that was needed to produce something of a high quality” for the series. Investments by the Tour in its television and digital productions and the pursuit of additional marketing and sponsorship opportunities are also part of the plan.

Pelley said the Tour and Rolex will subsidise tournaments such as the Irish Open and Scottish Open to allow them to distribute at least $7 million to players.

The Tour will also start the Access List, which will be a separate money list that will not include earnings from the Rolex Series, the Masters, the PGA Championship or the four World Golf Championships. The top three players on that list will be invited to play in Rolex Series events, and the top 10 finishers will be eligible for full European Tour membership for the following season.

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