The European Tour turned 50 with several Spaniards in the record book

Ang April 12, 1972exactly 50 years ago, occurred in Pals Golf Clubin full Costa Bravathe first official tournament in the history of the European Tourknown today as the DP World Tour, with the opening round of Spanish Open.

The first Tour event like this was won three days later by the Spanish Antonio Garridothat, along with the legendary Seve Ballesteroswas the first continental European to play Ryder Cup in 1979.

The 1972 Spanish Open was the culmination of a nearly 20-year campaign led by OBE John Jacobsthe founding father of the Tour, to modernize the structure of golf tournaments in Europe.

Since that day, the Tour has become a global sports organization, which has fought 1,916 tournaments in 440 different venues and in 50 different countries in the last half century.

A sum of 8,468 players different played on the Tour representing 110 countries. From them, 557 different players won, representing 37 countries.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary, the European Tour looks back and recalls moments in history, such as 50 wins for Seve Ballesteros, the record is still valid. Only five players in history have achieved more than 30 Tour wins.

Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Tiger Woods, Colin Montgomerie and Sir Nick Faldo These are pure circuit legends.

The memorable and unlucky Seve Ballesteros remains the worst player in history, with an unbeatable record. In less than 20 years, the five -time major champion (two Masters and three British Opens) has claimed 50 titles, starting with his first victory at the age of 19 at the 1976 Dutch Open, where he defeated Howard Clark of eight strokes.

What followed was a trend of 17 consecutive years, between 1976 and 1992, in which he won at least once, with a total of 47 wins including his three British Open wins (1979, 1984, 1988). and two Masters titles (1980, 1983). The best of those years was undoubtedly the 1986 season, in which he won six times, and remains the only player to record six official tournament wins in a single season.

In 1994, he won twice, beating Nick Faldo by three shots to win the Benson & Hedges International Open, before beating Txema Olazábal and Ernie Els to win the Mercedes German Masters. His last victory, and number 50, came a year later at the 1995 Spanish Open, winning the Open in his country for the third time.

The list of players with the most wins is as follows:

50, Seve Ballesteros

42, Bernhard Langer

41, Tiger Woods

31 Colin Montgomerie

30 Sir Nick Faldo

29 Ian Woosnam

28, Ernie Els

25 Lee Westwood

23, Txema Olazabal

21, Miguel Angel Jimenez

21,- Sam Torrance

On the other hand, Miguel Angel Jimenez made history at the 2020 Hero Open by surpassing Sam Torrance’s previous appearance record 706 Tour event, which he set in 2010. Jimenez has already appeared in ten subsequent events, setting the current milestone of 717.

By breaking his participation record, Jiménez promised that he would continue to play as long as he could. “I promise you I’ll keep playing golf for as long as I can. I’m 56 now, but I still love what I do. I hope to see you on golf courses and around the world. Big hug to all.”

There are also three players in Tour history who have won as rookies, and all of this happened in just two years, between 2007 and 2009. In 2007, Paul Martin Benavides He became the first rookie in history to win a Tour event when he won the Estoril Open de Portugal title. At the age of 18 years and 213 days, Danny Lee followed Benavides by not only becoming the second player to win as a rookie, but also made history as the youngest winner in Tour history at the time with his 2009 Johnnie win. Walker Classic 12 events just after Lee clinched his first title, Shane Lowry followed in his footsteps and became the third – and most recent – amateur to win the Tour when he defeated Robert Rock in a playoff against the home crowd in 2009 Irish Open.