1989 European Tour

1989 European Tour season

Duration	23 February 1989 (1989-02-23) – 29 October 1989 (1989-10-29)
Number of official events	33[a]
Most wins	Nick Faldo (4)
Order of Merit	Ronan Rafferty
Golfer of the Year	Nick Faldo
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year	Paul Broadhurst
← 1988 1990 →

The 1989 European Tour, titled as the 1989 Volvo Tour for sponsorship reasons, was the 18th season of the European Tour, the main professional golf tour in Europe since its inaugural season in 1972.

It was the second season of the tour under a title sponsorship agreement with Volvo, that was announced in May 1987.[1]

Changes for 1989

The season was made up of 33 tournaments counting for the Order of Merit, and ten non-counting "Approved Special Events".[2][3]

There were several changes from the previous season, with the addition of the Tenerife Open, the Dubai Desert Classic, the Volvo Open Championship, the Murphy's Cup (an approved special event), the BMW International Open and the Catalan Open, which replaced the cancelled Barcelona Open. A renewal of the Europcar Cup, a team event which debuted in 1988, was planned but was ultimately cancelled.

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1989 season.[4]

Date	Tournament	Host country	Purse (£)	Winner[b]	OWGR points	Notes
26 Feb	Tenerife Open	Spain	200,000	José María Olazábal (5)	18	New tournament
5 Mar	Karl Litten Desert Classic	UAE	US$450,000	Mark James (10)	18	New tournament
13 Mar	Open Renault de Baleares	Spain	225,000	Ove Sellberg (2)	26
19 Mar	Barcelona Open	Spain	–	Cancelled	–
19 Mar	Massimo Dutti Catalan Open	Spain	200,000	Mark Roe (1)	18	New tournament
27 Mar	AGF Open	France	150,000	Mark James (11)	16
2 Apr	Volvo Open Championship	Italy	200,000	Vijay Singh (1)	16	New tournament
9 Apr	Jersey European Airways Open	Jersey	150,000	Christy O'Connor Jnr (3)	16
9 Apr	Masters Tournament	United States	US$1,000,000	Nick Faldo (16)	100	Major championship[c]
16 Apr	Credit Lyonnais Cannes Open	France	200,000	Paul Broadhurst (1)	14
23 Apr	Cepsa Madrid Open	Spain	225,000	Seve Ballesteros (40)	26
30 Apr	Peugeot Spanish Open	Spain	250,000	Bernhard Langer (20)	40
7 May	Epson Grand Prix of Europe Matchplay Championship	Wales	300,000	Seve Ballesteros (41)	40	Limited-field event
14 May	Volvo Belgian Open	Belgium	200,000	Gordon J. Brand (1)	18
21 May	Lancia Italian Open	Italy	225,000	Ronan Rafferty (1)	36
30 May	Volvo PGA Championship	England	350,000	Nick Faldo (17)	64
4 Jun	Dunhill British Masters	England	300,000	Nick Faldo (18)	42
11 Jun	Wang Four Stars	England	200,000	Craig Parry (1)	18	Pro-Am
18 Jun	NM English Open	England	250,000	Mark James (12)	16
18 Jun	U.S. Open	United States	US$1,000,000	Curtis Strange (n/a)	100	Major championship[c]
25 Jun	Carroll's Irish Open	Ireland	250,000	Ian Woosnam (12)	38
2 Jul	Peugeot Open de France	France	325,000	Nick Faldo (19)	46
8 Jul	Torras Monte Carlo Open	France	300,000	Mark McNulty (8)	24
15 Jul	Bell's Scottish Open	Scotland	300,000	Michael Allen (1)	46
23 Jul	The Open Championship	Scotland	725,000	Mark Calcavecchia (n/a)	100	Major championship
30 Jul	KLM Dutch Open	Netherlands	275,000	José María Olazábal (6)	40
6 Aug	Scandinavian Enterprise Open	Sweden	325,000	Ronan Rafferty (2)	32
13 Aug	Benson & Hedges International Open	England	300,000	Gordon Brand Jnr (7)	34
13 Aug	PGA Championship	United States	US$1,200,000	Payne Stewart (n/a)	100	Major championship[c]
20 Aug	PLM Open	Sweden	300,000	Mike Harwood (2)	24
27 Aug	German Open	West Germany	325,000	Craig Parry (2)	38
3 Sep	Ebel European Masters Swiss Open	Switzerland	425,000	Seve Ballesteros (42)	40
10 Sep	Panasonic European Open	England	350,000	Andrew Murray (1)	64
17 Sep	Trophée Lancôme	France	400,000	Eduardo Romero (1)	64	Limited-field event
8 Oct	German Masters	West Germany	325,000	Bernhard Langer (21)	48
15 Oct	BMW International Open	West Germany	275,000	David Feherty (3)	22	New tournament
22 Oct	Portuguese Open TPC	Portugal	275,000	Colin Montgomerie (1)	18
29 Oct	Volvo Masters	Spain	400,000	Ronan Rafferty (3)	40	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
19 Aug	Murphy's Cup	Wales	160,000	Hugh Baiocchi	n/a	New tournament
24 Sep	Ryder Cup	England	n/a	Tie ( Team Europe retain)	n/a	Team event
26 Sep	Equity & Law Challenge	England	135,000	Brett Ogle	n/a
30 Sep	Motorola Classic	England	60,000	David Llewellyn	4
1 Oct	Dunhill Cup	Scotland	US$1,200,000	Team USA	n/a	Team event
1 Oct	UAP European Under-25 Championship	France	n/a	Stephen Hamill	n/a
15 Oct	Suntory World Match Play Championship	England	325,000	Nick Faldo	36	Limited-field event
5 Nov	Europcar Cup	France	–	Cancelled	–	Team event
5 Nov	Asahi Glass Four Tours World Championship	Japan	US$1,030,000	Team USA	n/a	Team event
12 Nov	Benson & Hedges Trophy	Spain	200,000	Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Xonia Wunsch-Ruiz	n/a	Team event
19 Nov	World Cup	Spain	US$1,000,000	Peter Fowler and Wayne Grady	n/a	Team event
	World Cup Individual Trophy			Peter Fowler	n/a

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.[5]

Position	Player	Prize money (£)
1	Ronan Rafferty	400,311
2	José María Olazábal	336,239
3	Craig Parry	277,322
4	Nick Faldo	261,553
5	Mark James	245,917
6	Ian Woosnam	210,101
7	Bernhard Langer	205,195
8	Seve Ballesteros	202,763
9	Mark McNulty	179,694
10	David Feherty	178,167

Awards

Award	Winner	Ref.
Golfer of the Year	Nick Faldo	[6]
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year	Paul Broadhurst	[7]

See also

• 1989 Challenge Tour

Notes

1. One further tournament was scheduled but was 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.
3. Unofficial money event at the time, but retrospectively counted as an official win.

References

1. White, Graeme (26 May 1987). "Volvo boost for Euro golf". Black Country Evening Mail. West Bromwich, United Kingdom. p. 33. Retrieved 19 October 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
2. "Rich pickings on the European Tour". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Aberdeen, United Kingdom. 18 October 1988. p. 14. Retrieved 28 April 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
3. "Sport in short | Fixtures | Golf". Sandwell Evening Mail. Sandwell, United Kingdom. 1 February 1989. p. 39. Retrieved 28 April 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
4. "1989 Tournament schedule". European Tour. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
5. Williams, Michael (30 October 1989). "Rafferty hits heights to overshadow Faldo". The Daily Telegraph. London, United Kingdom. p. 38. Retrieved 20 October 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
6. Laidlaw, Renton (19 December 1989). "Now Faldo is putting on the Ritz". Evening Standard. London, United Kingdom. p. 40. Retrieved 20 October 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
7. "Broadhurst picked for Cotton award". The Daily Telegraph. London, United Kingdom. 28 November 1989. p. 40. Retrieved 20 October 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

• Official website