European Seniors Tour Announces 17-event Tour Schedule

With 11 successful seasons already behind it, the European Seniors Tour has announced its schedule for the year with every reason to believe that 2003 will provide the Tour with its own version of the ‘Glorious 12th.’

At this early stage, the schedule features 17 tournaments spanning the globe but, as always, discussions are ongoing in an attempt to attract new sponsors to further tournaments which will be announced in the near future.

As in previous years, the season will get underway in the Caribbean but with the added interest this year of a new tournament, the Digicel Jamaican Seniors, in association with Sony Ericsson, at Half Moon, Montego Bay in Jamaica from March 21-23.

The new event will kick off an extended ‘Caribbean Swing’, which will go on to feature the fourth staging of the Royal Westmoreland Barbados Open from March 27-29 and the second playing of the Tobago Plantations Seniors Classic from April 3-5.

The Digicel Jamaican Seniors, in association with Sony Ericsson, will offer a prize fund of $250,000, bringing the total value of the ‘Caribbean Swing’ to around $650,000, an added bonus to the warmth and sunshine enjoyed in that idyllic part of the world and the perfect start in the race for the 2003 Order of Merit.

While established tournaments are the bedrock of any Tour, it is always pleasing to announce new events and on that score, the European Seniors Tour is delighted to add three more to the 2003 schedule.

The first one of these, the Wallonia Open, will be staged at the Pierpont Golf Club to the south of Brussels from May 23-25 before moving from Belgium to England for the Nigel Mansell Classic at Woodbury Park in Devon from August 22-24, where the former Formula One World Motor Racing and World Indycar Champion will play host, and the Merseyside English Seniors Open at Hillside Golf Club from September 26-28.

As well as new tournaments, it is always exciting to visit new venues and top of the list this year on that score is the magnificent Westin Turnberry Resort in Scotland, which will play host to the Senior British Open from July 24-27.

It represents a return ‘home’ for the tournament which was staged there for its first four years from 1987 to 1990.

The winners there represent a Who’s Who of Golf, in Bob Charles, Neil Coles and Gary Player (twice) and it is hoped that the return to the famous Open Championship venue will herald another memorable Championship this summer.

Unquestionably the Senior British Open will be the fulcrum of the season being, as it is for the first time, incorporated into the US Champions Tour and officially recognised as a ‘Senior Major’.

Being a joint sanctioned event, prize money won will count on both Tours and, after years of discussion between the European Seniors Tour and the US PGA Tour, this represents a major ambition realised.

It is also worth noting that the restructuring of the schedule has enabled the European Seniors Tour not to clash with two other Senior Majors in America this year, the US PGA Seniors Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania from June 5-8 and the US Senior Open at the Inverness Club in Ohio from June 26-29.

Andy Stubbs, Managing Director of the European Seniors Tour, said: ‘Glancing down the schedule, we see another season full of exciting and varied playing opportunities for our Members throughout the world, further emphasising the growing globalisation of our game.’

For further information please contact:

Communications Division, The European Tour
Tel: +44 1344 840400
Fax: +44 1344 840444
E-mail: media@europeantour.com