The PGA European tour

The tour has mightily swelled its purse and status -it attracts big names and huge crowds. Today's events now stretch from the true links at Turnberry to the desert sands of Dubai. Golf in Europe has enjoyed phenomenal - and ever growing -success in the last decade or so. In one three month period alone, prize money doubled.

It is tempting to link the recent fortunes of European professional golf to the career of Severiano Ballesteros. But the comparison ignores the structure of the professional game before this gifted player came on to the scene, and how the idea of a tour evolved.

Early days
At the turn of the century, the British professional was acknowledged as providing the standard for the rest of the world. This was the era of Vardon, Braid and Taylor who dominated the Open Championship, and it was Taylor who launched the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) in 1901.

The aim of the association was to act as a kind of trade union for professionals who were employed at the clubs as servants. There were no professional tournaments - the top players of the day simply played exhibition matches where the gate money provided the purse, or perhaps a wealthy benefactor would put up a hundred guineas for a challenge match.

Commercial sponsorship of tournaments did not begin until the early 1930s, and gradually some sort of tour developed. But the main role of professionals was to serve club members. Tournaments used to end on a Thursday or Friday so the pros could carry out their duties over the weekend.

Swinging seventies
It was not until the '70s that sponsors noticed the attractions of golf and a new kind of golf pro emerged. This was a person who, although attached to a club in name, devoted all of his time to playing tournament golf while various assistants handled the running of his shop. Golfers like Peter Alliss, Neil Coles, Bernard Hunt and John Jacobs were the leaders of this new breed. They were responsible for creating an independent tournament-playing division of the PGA.

Although some sort of tour was in existence it was a shambles. The problem was that the PGA Committee, largely made up of club professionals and decided the policies for the tournament-playing side. The players resented being handled by golfers not playing the circuit and the club pros didn't want to lose control of their showcase.

Jacob's ground rules
Clearly something had to be done. In 1971 the then secretary of the PGA, John Bywaters, invited John Jacobs to become Director General with special responsibilities for tournaments. At that time Tony Jacklin was top of the form after his victories in the British and US Opens. But there was little continuity -prize funds were paltry and players were forced to scratch around to make a living.

As a former player, Jacobs understood these problems and set about solving them. He realized that a small country with a varying climate like Britain couldn't keep a full tournament schedule.

John Jacobs decided to expand into Europe. He set a minimum purse of £5000 - more than double the previous limit - and prevented tournament players from playing anywhere else while an event was on.

He made a rule which allowed only winners of major championships to ask for appearance money. This gave Jacklin the opportunity to resist the financial attractions in America and stay in Europe. With Jacklin on the scene, the television cameras moved in.

Within three months of taking up his appointment Jacobs doubled the prize money for the 1972 season from £220,000 in 1971 to £440,000. But a bitter power struggle followed. Finally in 1975 the tournament professionals broke away from the main body of the PGA and formed the European Tournament Players' Division - later known as the PGA European Tour.

Ballesteros to the fore
In 1976 Ken Schofield was appointed executive director. It was to be a memorable year - the youthful talents of Seve Ballesteros were about to explode on to the European scene and provide an unexpected boost to the tour's growth.

Ballesteros was runner-up in the 1976 Open at Royal Birkdale, having led after three rounds. His first tournament win -the 76 Dutch Open -took him to the top of the European Order of Merit. More important, Ballesteros gave the tour its first truly European flavor.

Inspired by Seve's magical performance, other players began to believe in their ability to beat the best in the world. Increased competition, created by the higher levels of prize money, attracted players such as Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Nick Faldo. Now there was no need for a player to travel the US Tour in search of the best opponents - they were in his own back yard.

Other players from further afield, such as Australia, South Africa and South America, flocked to play in Europe, making the PGA European Tour the most cosmopolitan in the world.

Unlike the US Tour, the European circuit encourages foreigners. In Europe there are generous qualification levels for overseas players. For any pro just starting out, there is the Tour Qualifying School at the end of the year where hundreds of hopefuls battle for 50 places on the main tour.

Not an easy route by any means and for some young pros not the only way -Irishman Ronan Rafferty actually failed the school in 1981 but qualified by an overseas tour order of merit. Unsuccessful applicants now have the chance to play on the PGA European Challenge Tour which stages prize money events on the Continent and in Great Britain.

Corporate identity
At the beginning of the 1980s, prize money in Europe stood at a total of £1.7 million spread over 22 events. Today the number of events has increased to 37 with the purse soaring to over £16 million. Part of the reason for this growth is that the tour has expanded from being a body which merely organizes professional golf tournaments.

The tour's operations now include course design and construction, licensing arrangements, publishing, TV and videos. All these activities have enabled the tour to promote itself on a higher level. As a result, the tour was able to negotiate a sponsorship arrangement with the Volvo car company.

The Volvo sponsorship has made standards rise even higher with better facilities for players, media and public. Such success breeds success and it's hardly surprising that the European triumphs in recent Ryder Cup matches coincide with the increased incentives.

Wheel of fortune
One of the main reasons for the tour's success is television. Schofield negotiated long-term contracts with the BBC to cover certain tournaments. Knowing these events would be covered for up to three years, he was then able to set higher prize money from the sponsors for each event.

Mass exposure of the game contributed to the current boom. And with the arrival of satellite television every tournament on the PGA European Tour is covered.

This growth is likely to go on. Golf has more to offer than any other sport and continues to attract large sponsorship. Although Seve Ballesteros will be 43 by the year 2000 he has acted as an inspiration for a whole generation of players eager to show they can follow or even better his achievements.

There is little to prevent the tour offering somewhere between £35 and £40 million in prize money by the turn of the century - a staggering amount, unimaginable 15 years ago when the tournament players decided to control their own destiny.