1975 European Tour

The 1975 European Tour was a series of golf tournaments that comprised the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Tournament Players’ Section circuit. It is officially recognised as the fourth season of the PGA European Tour.

1975 European Tour season
Duration8 April 1975 (1975-04-08) – 19 October 1975 (1975-10-19)
Number of official events19
Most wins2:[lower-alpha 1]
George Burns
Bob Shearer
Order of Merit Dale Hayes
← 1974
1976 →

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, adopting the name PGA European Golf Tour in 1979.[1]

The season was made up of 19 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 and Scotland.[2][3]

The Order of Merit was won by South Africa's Dale Hayes.

Changes for 1975

There were several changes from the previous season, with the addition of the Carroll's Irish Open, which replaced the Carroll's International, and the Kerrygold International Classic; and the loss of the Penfold Tournament, the W.D. & H.O. Wills Tournament and the El Paraiso Open. Following the withdrawal of sponsors, Lord Derby's Young Professionals' Tournament and the Coca-Cola Young Professionals' Championship were also lost from the schedule, the PGA ultimately decided to sponsor an under-25's event themselves.[4]

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1975 season.

Date Tournament Host country Purse
(£)		 Winner[lower-alpha 2] Notes
11 Apr Portuguese Open Portugal 15,000 Hal Underwood (1)
13 Apr Masters Tournament United States US$200,000 Jack Nicklaus (n/a) Major championship[lower-alpha 3]
19 Apr Spanish Open Spain 30,000 Arnold Palmer (n/a)
26 Apr Madrid Open Spain 18,000 Bob Shearer (1)
4 May French Open France 18,000 Brian Barnes (3)
10 May Piccadilly Medal England 15,000 Bob Shearer (2)
26 May Penfold PGA Championship England 50,000 Arnold Palmer (n/a)
14 Jun Martini International England 12,000 Christy O'Connor Jnr (1)
Ian Stanley (1)		 Title shared[5]
22 Jun U.S. Open United States US$235,000 Lou Graham (n/a) Major championship[lower-alpha 3]
12 Jul The Open Championship Scotland 75,000 Tom Watson (1) Major championship
20 Jul Swiss Open Switzerland 25,000 Dale Hayes (1)
27 Jul Scandinavian Enterprise Open Sweden 32,500 George Burns (1)
3 Aug German Open West Germany 19,000 Maurice Bembridge (5)
10 Aug Dutch Open Netherlands 17,500 Hugh Baiocchi (2)
10 Aug PGA Championship United States US$225,000 Jack Nicklaus (n/a) Major championship[lower-alpha 3]
16 Aug Benson & Hedges Festival of Golf England 25,000 Vicente Fernández (1)
31 Aug Carroll's Irish Open Ireland 25,000 Christy O'Connor Jnr (2) New to European Tour
6 Sep Sun Alliance Match Play Championship England 20,000 Eddie Polland (2)
14 Sep Kerrygold International Classic Ireland 10,000 George Burns (2) New tournament
24 Sep Double Diamond Strokeplay Scotland 10,000 Peter Dawson (1)
4 Oct Dunlop Masters England 20,000 Bernard Gallacher (3)
19 Oct Italian Open Italy 20,000 Billy Casper (n/a)

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) Notes
17 May Sumrie-Bournemouth Better-Ball England 12,000 Jack Newton and
John O'Leary		 Team event
20 Sep T.P.D. Young Professionals' Championship England 5,000 Dale Hayes
21 Sep Ryder Cup United States n/a Team USA Team event
27 Sep Double Diamond International Scotland n/a The Americas Team event
11 Oct Piccadilly World Match Play Championship England 30,000 Hale Irwin Limited-field event
7 Dec World Cup Thailand US$4,200 Lou Graham and
Johnny Miller		 Team event
World Cup Individual Trophy US$2,100 Johnny Miller

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated using a points-based system.[6]

PositionPlayerPointsPrize money (£)
1 Dale Hayes17,48720,507
2 Bob Shearer13,92016,040
3 Eamonn Darcy11,98814,845
4 Brian Barnes10,49113,492
5 Bernard Gallacher9,99512,039
6 Hugh Baiocchi9,0639,631
7 Christy O'Connor Jnr8,68011,978
8 Jack Newton8,63116,394
9 Vicente Fernández8,26310,108
10 Neil Coles8,23711,769

See also

Notes
  1. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer also won 2 events, but were not European Tour members.
  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. Victories in "Approved Special Events" are not recognised as official tour wins.
  3. Unofficial money event at the time, but retrospectively counted as an official win.

References
  1. "Tour History". PGA European Tour. Archived from the original on 4 April 2010.
  2. Ward-Thomas, Pat (18 December 1974). "Sun boost to £629,000". The Guardian. p. 23. Retrieved 14 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Jacobs, Raymond (18 December 1974). "Golf prize fund is only slightly down". Glasgow Herald. p. 3. Retrieved 14 June 2020 – via Google News Archive.
  4. Ward-Thomas, Pat (25 February 1975). "The big hitters checked". The Guardian. p. 25. Retrieved 14 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Jacobs, Raymond (16 June 1975). "Two stroke it rich in Martini". Glasgow Herald. p. 17. Retrieved 14 June 2020 – via Google News Archive.
  6. "Hayes tops merit table". Aberdeen Press and Journal. 11 November 1975. p. 20. Retrieved 14 June 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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