1978 European Tour

The 1978 European Tour was a series of golf tournaments that comprised the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) European Tournament Players’ Division circuit. It is officially recognised as the seventh season of the PGA European Tour.

1978 European Tour season
Duration12 April 1978 (1978-04-12) – 22 October 1978 (1978-10-22)
Number of official events21
Most wins4 – Seve Ballesteros
Order of MeritSeve Ballesteros
Sir Henry Cotton rookie of the yearSandy Lyle
← 1977
1979 →

Historically, the PGA's Order of Merit only included tournaments in Great Britain and Ireland, but in 1970 events in continental Europe were included for the first time. The circuit and organisation evolved further over the following years, with the title of the circuit being changed to PGA European Golf Tour in 1979.[1]

The Order of Merit was won by Spain's Seve Ballesteros.

Schedule

The table below shows the 1978 European Tour schedule which was made up of 21 tournaments counting for the Order of Merit, and some non-counting tournaments that later became known as "Approved Special Events". The schedule included the major national opens around Europe, with the other tournaments mostly held in England, Wales and Scotland.

There were several changes from the previous season, with the addition of the Belgian Open, the B.A./Avis Open in Jersey, and the European Open; the return of the Sumrie Better-Ball; and the loss of the Uniroyal International Championship, the Callers of Newcastle, and the Double Diamond team and individual events. In addition, the Kerrygold International was omitted from the schedule in 1978 due to the World Cup being held at Waterville.[2][3] The Lancome Trophy, which clashed with the new European Open, was also missing.[4]

Dates Tournament Host country Winner[lower-alpha 1] Notes
6–9 Apr Masters Tournament United States Gary Player (n/a) Major championship; non-tour event[lower-alpha 1]
12–15 Apr Portuguese Open Portugal Howard Clark (1)
19–22 Apr Spanish Open Spain Brian Barnes (5)
26–29 Apr Madrid Open Spain Howard Clark (2)
4–7 May Italian Open Italy Dale Hayes (2)
12–15 May French Open France Dale Hayes (3)
18–21 May Martini International England Seve Ballesteros (5)
26–29 May Colgate PGA Championship England Nick Faldo (2)
1–4 Jun B.A./Avis Open Jersey Brian Huggett (2) New tournament
8–11 Jun Belgian Open Belgium Noel Ratcliffe (1) New tournament
15–18 Jun U.S. Open United States Andy North (n/a) Major championship; non-tour event[lower-alpha 1]
15–18 Jun Greater Manchester Open England Brian Barnes (6)
21–24 Jun Sumrie-Bournemouth Better-Ball England Eamonn Darcy (n/a) &
Christy O'Connor Jnr (n/a)		 Pairs event, non-counting for the Order of Merit[lower-alpha 1]
28 Jun – 1 Jul Sun Alliance Match Play Championship Scotland Mark James (1)
12–15 Jul The Open Championship Scotland Jack Nicklaus (n/a) Major championship
21–23 Jul Dutch Open Netherlands Bob Byman (3)
27–30 Jul Braun German Open West Germany Seve Ballesteros (6)
3–6 Aug PGA Championship United States John Mahaffey (n/a) Major championship; non-tour event[lower-alpha 1]
3–6 Aug Scandinavian Enterprise Open Sweden Seve Ballesteros (7)
9–12 Aug Benson and Hedges International Open England Lee Trevino (n/a)
24–27 Aug Carroll's Irish Open Republic of Ireland Ken Brown (1)
31 Aug – 3 Sep Swiss Open Switzerland Seve Ballesteros (8)
14–17 Sep Tournament Players Championship England Brian Waites (1)
21–23 Sep Hennessy Cognac Cup France Great Britain and Ireland Approved special event; team event
4–7 Oct Dunlop Masters Wales Tommy Horton (4)
12–15 Oct Colgate World Match Play Championship England Isao Aoki (n/a) Approved special event
12–15 Oct Cacharel World Under-25 Championship France Jim Nelford (n/a) Approved special event
19–22 Oct European Open England Bobby Wadkins (n/a) New tournament
  1. The numbers in parentheses after the winners' names show the number of official career wins they had on the European Tour up to and including that event. Totals are only shown for members of the European Tour and are inclusive of the three United States-based major championships since, although not official tour events at the time, they have been recognised as such retrospecively. Victories in tournaments later designated as "Approved Special Events", along with other events not counting towards the Order of Merit, are not recognised as official tour wins.

Order of Merit

The PGA European Tour's money list was known as the "Order of Merit". It was based on a points system, which meant that some players could finish lower than others despite accumulating more prize money.[5]

PositionPlayerCountryPointsPrize money (£)
1Seve Ballesteros Spain47,17754,348
2Dale Hayes South Africa30,20443,891
3Nick Faldo England28,49537,912
4Ken Brown Scotland24,92929,843
5Howard Clark England24,47332,739
6Neil Coles England23,15030,348
7Mark James England19,02027,861
8Brian Barnes Scotland18,10523,386
9Bernard Gallacher Scotland17,71421,812
10Tommy Horton England16,26418,007

Awards
AwardWinnerCountry
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the YearSandy Lyle Scotland

See also

References
  1. "Tour History". PGA European Tour. Archived from the original on 4 April 2010.
  2. Jacobs, Raymond (20 December 1977). "Our golf scene goes European". Glasgow Herald. Glasgow, Scotland. p. 19. Retrieved 12 June 2020 – via Google News Archive.
  3. Foulger, Neville (29 December 1977). "Faldo carries British hopes against hefty continental challenge". Coventry Evening Telegraph. Coventry, England. p. 34. Retrieved 12 June 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. "Golf pros banned from tourney". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Aberdeen, Scotland. 28 April 1978. p. 1. Retrieved 12 June 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. "Ballesteros again". The Guardian. 3 November 1978. p. 22. Retrieved 16 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.