1996 European Tour

The 1996 European Tour, titled as the 1996 PGA European Tour,^[1] was the 25th season of the European Tour, the main professional golf tour in Europe since its inaugural season in 1972.

1996 European Tour season

Duration	25 January 1996 (1996-01-25) – 27 October 1996 (1996-10-27)
Number of official events	38[a]
Most wins	Ian Woosnam (4)
Order of Merit	Colin Montgomerie
Golfer of the Year	Colin Montgomerie
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year	Thomas Bjørn
← 1995 1997 →

Changes for 1996

The 1996 season saw co-sanctioning arrangements expand, with the PGA Tour of Australasia's Heineken Classic joining three Southern Africa Tour events on the schedule. The season was ultimately made up of 38 tournaments counting for the Order of Merit, and several non-counting "Approved Special Events".^[2][3][4]

Other changes from the previous season included the addition of the Heineken Classic, the Dimension Data Pro-Am and the Loch Lomond World Invitational; and the loss of the Turespaña Open De Canaria and the Open de Baleares. Soon after the schedule was announced, a third Southern Africa Tour event was added, the FNB Players Championship.^[5]

In January, the Jersey Open was moved onto the European Senior Tour schedule and the Open Mediterrania was replaced by the Catalan Open.^[6] In February, a new tournament in Spain, the Oki Pro-Am, was added opposite the Dunhill Cup.^[7] In March, the Slaley Hall Northumberland Challenge was added to the schedule, taking the dates vacated by the Jersey Open, opposite the U.S. Open.^[8]

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1996 season.^[9]

Date	Tournament	Host country	Purse (£)	Winner[b]	OWGR points	Other tours[c]	Notes
28 Jan	Johnnie Walker Classic	Singapore	600,000	Ian Woosnam (25)	42	ANZ
4 Feb	Heineken Classic	Australia	A$800,000	Ian Woosnam (26)	34	ANZ	New to European Tour
11 Feb	Dimension Data Pro-Am	South Africa	400,000	Mark McNulty (13)	30	AFR	New Pro-Am tournament
18 Feb	Alfred Dunhill South African PGA Championship	South Africa	300,000	Sven Strüver (1)	22	AFR
25 Feb	FNB Players Championship	South Africa	400,000	Wayne Westner (2)	28	AFR	New to European Tour
3 Mar	Turespaña Open Mediterrania	Spain	–	Cancelled[6]	–
3 Mar	Catalan Open	Spain	300,000	Paul Lawrie (1)	20
10 Mar	Moroccan Open	Morocco	350,000	Peter Hedblom (1)	26
17 Mar	Dubai Desert Classic	UAE	US$1,000,000	Colin Montgomerie (10)	36
24 Mar	Portuguese Open	Portugal	350,000	Wayne Riley (2)	20
31 Mar	Madeira Island Open	Portugal	300,000	Jarmo Sandelin (2)	20
14 Apr	Masters Tournament	United States	US$2,500,000	Nick Faldo (30)	100		Major championship[d]
21 Apr	Air France Cannes Open	France	400,000	Raymond Russell (1)	20
28 Apr	Turespaña Masters	Spain	500,000	Diego Borrego (1)	26
5 May	Conte of Florence Italian Open	Italy	500,000	Jim Payne (2)	24
12 May	Peugeot Spanish Open	Spain	550,000	Pádraig Harrington (1)	32
19 May	Benson & Hedges International Open	England	700,000	Stephen Ames (2)	44
27 May	Volvo PGA Championship	England	1,000,000	Costantino Rocca (3)	64		Flagship event
2 Jun	Deutsche Bank Open TPC of Europe	Germany	750,000	Frank Nobilo (5)	38
9 Jun	Alamo English Open	England	650,000	Robert Allenby (2)	30
16 Jun	Jersey Open	Jersey	–	Cancelled[6]	–
16 Jun	Slaley Hall Northumberland Challenge	England	300,000	Retief Goosen (1)	20		New tournament
16 Jun	U.S. Open	United States	US$2,400,000	Steve Jones (n/a)	100		Major championship[d]
23 Jun	BMW International Open	Germany	500,000	Marc Farry (1)	20
30 Jun	Peugeot Open de France	France	600,000	Robert Allenby (3)	40
7 Jul	Murphy's Irish Open	Ireland	750,000	Colin Montgomerie (11)	40
13 Jul	Scottish Open	Scotland	480,000	Ian Woosnam (27)	42
21 Jul	The Open Championship	England	1,500,000	Tom Lehman (n/a)	100		Major championship
28 Jul	Sun Microsystems Dutch Open	Netherlands	650,000	Mark McNulty (14)	28
4 Aug	Volvo Scandinavian Masters	Sweden	700,000	Lee Westwood (1)	32
11 Aug	Hohe Brücke Open	Austria	250,000	Paul McGinley (1)	20
11 Aug	PGA Championship	United States	US$2,400,000	Mark Brooks (n/a)	100		Major championship[d]
18 Aug	Chemapol Trophy Czech Open	Czech Republic	750,000	Jonathan Lomas (1)	20
25 Aug	Volvo German Open	Germany	700,000	Ian Woosnam (28)	20
31 Aug	One 2 One British Masters	England	700,000	Robert Allenby (4)	36
8 Sep	Canon European Masters	Switzerland	750,000	Colin Montgomerie (12)	32
15 Sep	Trophée Lancôme	France	650,000	Jesper Parnevik (3)	38
22 Sep	Loch Lomond World Invitational	Scotland	750,000	Thomas Bjørn (1)	40
29 Sep	Smurfit European Open	Ireland	750,000	Per-Ulrik Johansson (3)	38
6 Oct	Linde German Masters	Germany	650,000	Darren Clarke (2)	40
13 Oct	Oki Pro-Am	Spain	450,000	Tom Kite (n/a)	20		New tournament
27 Oct	Volvo Masters	Spain	900,000	Mark McNulty (15)	40		Tour Championship

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)	OWGR points	Notes
13 Oct	Dunhill Cup	Scotland	1,000,000	Team USA	n/a	Team event
20 Oct	Toyota World Match Play Championship	England	650,000	Ernie Els	42	Limited-field event
20 Oct	Open Novotel Perrier	France	n/a	Steven Bottomley and Jonathan Lomas	n/a	Team event
3 Nov	Subaru Sarazen World Open	United States	US$1,900,000	Frank Nobilo	40
24 Nov	World Cup of Golf	South Africa	US$1,300,000	Ernie Els and Wayne Westner	n/a	Team event
	World Cup of Golf Individual Trophy		US$200,000	Ernie Els	n/a
22 Dec	Johnnie Walker World Golf Championship	Jamaica	–	Cancelled	–
5 Jan	Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf	United States	US$3,650,000	Greg Norman	58	Limited-field event

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was titled as the Volvo Order of Merit and was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in Pound sterling.^[10][11]

Position	Player	Prize money (£)
1	Colin Montgomerie	875,146
2	Ian Woosnam	650,423
3	Robert Allenby	532,143
4	Costantino Rocca	482,585
5	Mark McNulty	463,847
6	Lee Westwood	428,693
7	Andrew Coltart	345,936
8	Darren Clarke	329,795
9	Paul Broadhurst	300,364
10	Thomas Bjørn	292,023

Awards

Award	Winner	Ref.
Golfer of the Year	Colin Montgomerie	[12]
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year	Thomas Bjørn	[13]

See also

• 1996 Challenge Tour
• 1996 European Seniors Tour

Notes

1. A further two tournaments were scheduled but were cancelled.
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.
3. AFR − Southern Africa Tour; ANZ − PGA Tour of Australasia.
4. Unofficial money event at the time, but retrospectively counted as an official win.