The European Tour has decided to replace for next year its current three-tournament season-ending series with a new international series of seven competitions. In 2017 the Race to Dubai final series (three tournaments) will be replaced by the so-called Rolex Series. “It will have a minimum of seven tournaments at seven iconic golf venues around the world, offering prize money of at least seven million dollars, with the DP World Tour in Dubai with eight million million dollars,” Tour sources have said, adding that there are also plans to increase the number of Rolex Series tournaments in the coming seasons as part of the Swiss watchmaker’s multi-year commitment to the European Tour.
The 2017 Rolex Series will begin in May with the BMW PGA Champioship at the Wentworth Club in England and will be followed by two tournaments in July: the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, hosted by the Rory Foundation at Portstewart, and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Dundonald. The fourth tournament will be the Italian Open at Olgiata Golf Club in Rome in October; and the final three will be in November (all of which make up the current 2016 final series): the Turkish Airlines Open at Regnum Carya Golf and Spa Resort, the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa, and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
The Tour has also announced the establishment of a new Access Series to be contested simultaneously with the Race to Dubai but which will exclude money won in the European Tour’s most lucrative tournaments of the season, namely the seven Rolex Series events, the US Masters and PGA and the four World Golf Championships. “Money won at the British Open and US Open will indeed be included, as all European Tour members have an equal opportunity to pre-qualify for those tournaments. “The top 10 on the Access List at the end of the season who are not in the top 100 of the Race to Dubai will retain their cards for the following season, meaning that the number of players retaining full Race to Dubai membership will be reduced from 110 to 100, and the top ten on the Access List will receive a category immediately below the top 100,” the Tour explains.
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