Munich – At the season's premiere in Egypt, a sandstorm swept across the field on the first day of the tournament, so the Red Sea Egyptian Classic had to be shortened to two rounds. The German Hinrich Arkenau clinched the victory, a few days later the Frenchman Stanislas Gautier then triumphed at the Red Sea Ain Sokhna Classic held over 54 holes at the same place. Both winners are already among the top contenders for a promotion to the European Challenge Tour 2020, because as past experience shows: if you score plenty of points for the Pro Golf Tour Order of Merit thanks to good results at the start of the season and lay a solid sporting foundation, you have a good chance of finishing in the top five of the ranking at the end of the season and will then be allowed to move up to the higher league. A total of 675,000 euros in prize money and as many ranking list points are available this year on the Pro Golf Tour; they are distributed at 21 tournaments being held in seven different countries.

After the successful start to the tour in Egypt, eight tournaments are now planned for the next few weeks in Morocco. Five events are taking place in the Casablanca region in February and March. Afterwards, the tour will move on to Agadir, Tazegzout and, for the first time, to Ifrane. The “Open Michlifen” premiere is scheduled to take place there, in the mountainous region near Fez, from 9 to 11 April. The Pro Golf Tour will be a guest at the “Le Michlifen Golf & Country Club” for the first time. The resort features an 18-hole championship course designed by Jack Nicklaus and provides a high-calibre setting for the closing event of the 2019 Morocco series. The prize money of the tournament has been increased to 40,000 euros. With this tournament the host country and Pro Golf Tour are also celebrating their successful ten-year partnership. “We are delighted to be able to acknowledge this extremely fruitful and enjoyable cooperation with a new tournament,” says Rainer Goldrian, Pro Golf Tour Managing Director. “For ten years now, Morocco has been enabling us to start the season early in the year on excellent courses and under good conditions, which is crucial for the players' sporting development and therefore for the success of their future careers.”

They will continue to do so in eleven other Pro Golf Tour tournaments in Central Europe in the 2019 season. Traditionally, the second half of the season starts with the Haugschlag NÖ Open, which takes place from 24 to 26 April at the Austrian Haugschlag Golf Resort. Prize money of 30,000 euros is also up for grabs here, followed by the EXTEC Trophy by Atomic Drinks in Liberec, Czech Republic (10 to 12 May), the KUHN Maßkonfektion Open at the GC Glashofen-Neusaß in Walldürn-Neusaß (2 to 4 June), the Czech Classic 2019 at the Golf Resort Kaskáda in Brno (18 to 20 June) and the Polish Open, which takes place from 26 to 28 June at the Gradi Golf Club north of Wroclaw. The Kaskáda Golf Resort in the Czech Republic is the second new venue for the Pro Golf Tour 2019 season, besides Michlifen in Morocco. The varied and superbly maintained 27-hole course is located northwest of Brno and has spacious training areas and an adjacent 4-star hotel.  

45.000 euro prize money: High class event in Leipzig

Following the extremely successful premiere in the 2018 season, the Pro Golf Tour will return to Leipzig from 1 to 3 July to the local Golf & Country Club. The prize money for this year’s Leipzig Golf Open is a generous 45,000 euros. Therefore this tournament is highly important for the promotion to the Challenge Tour. The second edition of the Broekpolder International Open will take place in the Netherlands from 11 to 13 July, and the classic “Raiffeisen Pro Golf Tour St. Pölten presented by Elation Travel” will take players to Austria for the second time this year from 24 to 26 July. The venue has not been decided yet for the two tournaments in August in Germany (16 to 18 August) and the Czech Republic (23 to 25 August) but it is certain that this year’s final of the Pro Golf Tour will definitely take place in the far north again: at the Adendorf Golf Resort near Hamburg in Germany the players will determine the winner of the Castanea Resort Championship 2019 as well as the overall winner of the Pro Golf Tour 2019 and the five newcomers to the European Challenge Tour 2020 from 30 September to 2 October. Once again, the prize money of the tour final will be 50,000 euros, which ensures that the cards are completely reshuffled once more and that the audience will definitely experience an exciting end to the season again.

A total of 21 Order of Merit tournaments are therefore scheduled for the 2019 season, ensuring a varied tour calendar. Finally, the Pro Golf Tour Qualifying School ends the sporting year in mid-October; at the Golf Club Paderborner Land in Salzkotten it’s all about securing the best possible starting position for the 2020 season from 14 to 18 October. All the Pro Golf Tour 2019 dates are available here. All tournaments and results will be reported in-depth on this page and also on the Pro Golf Tour’s social media channels during the events