Three out; two in

The LPGA isn’t the only tour that has been affected by the financial crisis, which reflects in fewer tournaments and less sponsors. Thus, the European Tour announced early this week that the calendar for the 2010 campaign will have some changes.

The tour was established in 1971, when John Jacobs was named PGA Director of Tournaments.

The modifications to next year’s schedule were a complete surprise, mainly because 3 traditional events won’t appear next season; these are the Johnnie Walker Classic which used to be played in Australia and the Malaysia and Indonesia Open’s.
Never the less, there’s always some light at the end of the tunnel and the European Tour managed to add a couple of tournaments to balance things.
The first week of 2010 South Africa will host the inaugural edition of The Africa Open, which will be held at the London Golf Club.
Then, on March, the Hassan 11 Golf Trophy will make it’s first appearance as a PGA event because it’s been a pro event since 1971 but it was never considered to become part of the schedule; it will be played at the Royal Dar-Es-salam Club in Marruecos and will have a ProAm celebrity format for the first two rounds.
With these changes the European Tour will have 47 events, one less than last year. Still, it’s not bad for a sport that has been badly injured and is losing money constantly.