European Tour Rolls Out 2020 Schedule, Rolex Series Holds Steady
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Depending on how you view things, the European Tour’s bloated schedule mostly held steady and did not lose any Rolex Series events. But as Alistair Tait notes for Golfweek, holding steady misses Chief Executive Keith Pelley’s stated goal for more of the big-purse events.
The eight tournaments – the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, the BMW PGA Championship, Italian Open Turkish Airlines Open, Nedbank Golf Challenge and DP World Tour Championship – mirror this year’s Rolex Series at similar times of the year.
Pelley had hoped to have reached double figures by this point in his tenure. “Our goal is eight or nine in 2017 with a goal of 10 by 2018,” Pelley said when he launched the series in November 2016. While he did not reach that target last year or this season, there was hope he would hit 10 next year.
The WGC event in Memphis now moves to July—oh joy!—meaning the Irish Open moves back to late May at a venue to be determined. This ends a noteworthy one-year attempt at a two-week links golf lead in to The Open.
