European Tour: Early 2016 schedule details revealed

The European Tour today announced its schedule up until the end of March 2016, with tournaments in nine different destinations across the world including South Africa, Australia and Malaysia.

Keith Waters, The European Tour’s Chief Operating Officer and Director of International Policy, said: “Once again, we are delighted to announce a strong initial sector for The 2016 Race to Dubai which emphasises the global reach and appeal of The European Tour, and underlines the strength of our relationships with the Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour and the PGA Tour of Australasia”.

We are delighted to announce a strong initial sector for The 2016 Race to Dubai The 2016 Race to Dubai begins with the Alfred Dunhill Championship from November 26th-29th, taking place just one week after the crowning of this season’s champion at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

This initial South African swing is continued with the Nedbank Golf Challenge, although the Australian PGA Championship will also be available to Tour members in the same week. A month-long Christmas break is then followed by the South African Open and Joburg Open before the start of the traditional ‘Desert Swing’.

This three-tournament stretch is made up of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and concludes with the Omega Dubai Desert Classic from February 4th-7th.

The air miles really start to rack up from this point onward with the Tour going back to South Africa for a brief stop at the Tshwane Open before a return to Malaysia for the inaugural Maybank Championship Malaysia.

The next stop is then at the Perth International on the west coast of Australia for the first time since 2014, before the season’s first World Golf Championship event, the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Trump National, Doral.

There is then a return to Asia for the True Thailand Classic and Hero Indian Open before the WGC-Dell Matchplay Championship at Austin Country Club, Texas in the final week of March.

As well as there being two new tournaments at the Australian PGA Championship and Maybank Championship Malaysia, there are tournaments that look like being missed out of the European Tour schedule this year.

These include the Africa Open won by Trevor Fisher Junior earlier this year and the Madeira Islands Open in Portugal, initially cancelled in March due to poor weather and then won in stunning fashion by Roope Kakko in August.

Waters added: “I would like to thank all of our Federation and co-sanctioning partners, sponsors and promoters for helping us to form such a strong opening to The 2016 Race to Dubai.”