Wentworth/Munich – Triple champions immediately receive category 13 for both the current and following Challenge Tour season. This novelty already applies from the 2017 season for all four recognised Satellite Tours, although the three wins have to definitely be achieved on one and the same tour.

“We believe that this regulation strengthens the bond between the Satellite Tours and the Challenge Tour, for the benefit of the players”, says Alain de Soultrait, Director of the European Challenge Tour (picture), which is based in Wentworth, England. This new decision has been taken with a view to creating a similar rule to the one between the Challenge Tour and European Tour, where triple winners of the Challenge Tour instantly enjoy the right to tee off on the European Tour.

Although the potential instant climber is given the last category 13 place in the current season, the following season they receive first place in this class. Category 13 is exactly the same as the classification that the Top 5 climbers in the final Pro Golf Tour Order of Merit receive the following year on the Challenge Tour. These Top 5 also include those players who have successfully managed instant promotion as a multiple winner, if applicable.

In the history of the Pro Golf Tour, which has been enjoying the status of an official Satellite Tour of the European Tour since 2001, several players would have already benefited from the new rule over the last ten years. For example, German Martin Kaymer won five tournaments in 2006 and his fellow countryman Tino Schuster celebrated five wins in 2007. In the 2008 season, the Englishman James Ruth achieved three tournament successes, as did the Dutchman Reinier Saxton in 2011. In the 2012 tournament year, German Marcel Haremza lifted the winner’s cup into the air four times, just as often as Florian Fritsch (Germany) in the 2013 season. They all won the Pro Golf Tour Order of Merit too.

Benefits for multiple winners

The curious result of the 2015 season: Philipp Mejow from Berlin/Germany accomplished first place in the Order of Merit with two wins but Swiss Benjamin Rusch and German Martin Keskari both won three tournaments. The Alps Tour has recorded three multiple winners since 2011, six players in the Nordic Golf League achieved this feat and one player on the PGA Europro Tour: the Englishman Chris Hanson in 2011.

There is even more incentive for the Pro Golf Tour players to play for a win now. Which in many respects especially applies to the two still outstanding 2017 season tournaments in Morocco, the Ocean Open (23 to 25 March) and the Tazegzout Open (29 to 31 March) in Agadir: the best player in the six Pro Golf Tour 2017 Moroccan events this year also receives a wild card for the Trophée Hassan II, the European Tour tournament endowed with EUR 2.5 million, which takes place from 13 to 16 April on the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam golf course in Rabat. The Pro Golf Tour was last a guest there in the 2015 season.