The 2020 European Tour was the 49th season of the European Tour, the main professional golf tour in Europe since its inaugural season in 1972.
Planned changes for 2020
Rule changes
In order to combat slow play, from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship onwards, regulations were introduced whereby a player would receive a one-stroke penalty for two bad times during a tournament.[1]
Scheduling changes
With the addition of golf at the Olympic Games to the schedule in 2020, the Irish Open was moved to May from its previous date in July in order to avoid a clash with the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, which had already been moved to avoid the Olympics. The Open de France was then scheduled opposite the WGC Invitational, and the British Masters was scheduled opposite the Olympics.[2]
Tournament changes
Format change: the Scandinavian Invitation (formerly the Scandinavian Masters) became the Scandinavian Mixed, a co-sanctioned event with the Ladies European Tour consisting of a field of 78 men and 78 women.
After a three-month hiatus following the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in early March, the tour resumed with a much changed schedule in July. Two dual-ranking events in Austria were followed by a six-tournament stretch in the United Kingdom and three tournaments in Spain and Portugal, with the rescheduled major events starting in late September.
On 13 August, it was announced that Alexander Lévy had become the first European Tour player to return a positive test for COVID-19. He and Romain Wattel, who had been in close contact with Lévy, were withdrawn from the field for the Celtic Classic.[3]
In-season changes
Due to the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the Honma Hong Kong Open, originally scheduled for 28 November – 1 December 2019 as a co-sanctioned event with the Asian Tour, was rescheduled for 9–12 January 2020 as an Asian Tour event without European Tour sanctioning.[4][5]
The remainder of the schedule was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 19 March, the GolfSixes Cascais was cancelled and the Made in Denmark was postponed.[13] Organisers subsequently confirmed that the Made in Denmark had been cancelled.[14]
On 15 June, it was announced that both the European Tour and the Challenge Tour would return on 9 July with two consecutive dual-ranking events in Austria: the Austrian Open and the Euram Bank Open.[24]
On 3 July, it was announced that the Hero Indian Open had been cancelled.[25]
On 7 July, organisers announced the cancellation of the KLM Open.[26]
On 8 July, new dates were announced for the postponed Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters. The Portugal Masters was also rescheduled, with both tournaments being held during September.[27] Later in the day, it was announced that the 43rd Ryder Cup matches had been postponed until 2021.[28]
On 10 July, new dates in November were announced for the Magical Kenya Open, originally scheduled for March.[29] The Challenge Tour's Open de Portugal was also added to the schedule as a dual-ranking event; held in September following the Portugal Masters. The addition created a three event "Iberian Swing" starting with the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.[30]
On 13 July, the cancellation of the Mutuactivos Open de España was announced after suitable dates could not be found in the revised schedule.[31]
On 27 July, the cancellation of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship was announced, with organisers citing complexities of accommodating the European Tour's COVID-19 safety plan given the event's scale as an international pro-am and its traditional use of three separate venues.[32][33]
On 14 August, the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open was rescheduled to 24–27 September with a change of venue to Galgorm Castle in Northern Ireland and a reduced prize fund, which also meant the loss of its status as a Rolex Series event.[34]
On 17 August, it was announced that the previously rescheduled Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open and the BMW PGA Championship had both been forward one week, such that they would directly follow the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and create a second "UK swing".[35]
On 28 August, two Rolex Series events, the Turkish Airlines Open and the Nedbank Golf Challenge, were cancelled and a third, the Italian Open, was rescheduled and downgraded. Three new tournaments were also announced, to take place in mid to late October and early November: the Scottish Championship, extending the second UK Swing to four tournaments, and the Cyprus Open and the Cyprus Classic, the first tour events to be held in Cyprus.[36] On 12 October, the Cyprus Classic was renamed as the Cyprus Showdown with a novel elimination-style format.[37]
On 1 September, the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the WGC-HSBC Champions due to the COVID-19 pandemic was announced.[38]
On 10 September, the Magical Kenya Open was cancelled; it had previously been postponed in March and rescheduled to November.[39]
On 16 September, it was announced that the Australian PGA Championship had been postponed, with the tournament provisionally rescheduled for February 2021. As such, it no longer formed part of the 2020 season schedule.[40] On 16 October, it was announced that it had been cancelled.[41]
On 20 October, it was announced that the Joburg Open had been added to the calendar; scheduled for the week following the Masters Tournament, it was last held in 2017.[42]
On 21 October, the Alfred Dunhill Championship was added to the schedule also, creating a "South African Swing"; it was the second edition of the tournament during the 2020 season, the first having been held in November/December 2019.[43]
On 22 October, the three-week "South African Swing" was completed with the addition of the South African Open to the schedule; it was also the second edition of the tournament during the 2020 season, the first having been held in January.[44]
With the return of the European Tour after the COVID-19 hiatus and as part of the new Golf for Good initiative – which underpinned all events for the remainder of the 2020 season – a mini Order of Merit ran for all six events in the "UK Swing", with the top ten players sharing an additional £250,000 to donate to charities of their choice.[51] The top ten, not otherwise exempt, from the standings of the UK Swing Order of Merit after the first five events received entry into the 2020 U.S. Open.[52]
Final standings
The UK Swing Order of Merit was based on tournament results during the UK Swing, calculated using a points-based system.[51][53]
^A further 22 tournaments were scheduled but were either cancelled, postponed or otherwise removed from the schedule.
^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.
^Harig, Bob (13 March 2020). "PGA Tour cancels Players Championship after first round". ESPN. Retrieved 13 March 2020. The tour also announced it would be canceling the next three events on the PGA Tour schedule: the Valspar Championship, the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and the Valero Texas Open.
^"KLM Open 2020 afgelast" [KLM Open 2020 cancelled] (in Dutch). KLM Open. 7 July 2020. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (2)
John Catlin (2)
Rasmus Højgaard (2)
Sam Horsfield (2)
Sami Välimäki
Antoine Rozner
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