1979 European Tour

The 1979 European Tour was the eighth official season of golf tournaments known as the PGA European Tour and organised by the Professional Golfers' Association.

The Order of Merit was won by Scotland's Sandy Lyle.

Schedule

The table below shows the 1979 European Tour schedule which was made up of 24 tournaments, which included the major national opens around Europe. The other tournaments were mostly held in England, Wales and Scotland. There were several changes from the previous season, with the addition of the Welsh Golf Classic and Lada English Golf Classic, and the return of the Lancome Trophy.

Dates	Tournament	Host country	Winner	Notes
12–15 Apr	Portuguese Open	Portugal	Brian Barnes
19–22 Apr	Spanish Open	Spain	Dale Hayes
26–29 Apr	Madrid Open	Spain	Simon Hobday
3–6 May	Italian Open	Italy	Brian Barnes
10–13 May	French Open	France	Bernard Gallacher
17–20 May	Colgate PGA Championship	England	Vicente Fernandez
25–28 May	Martini International	England	Greg Norman
31 May–3 Jun	B.A./Avis Open	Jersey	Sandy Lyle
7–10 Jun	Belgian Open	Belgium	Gavan Levenson
14–17 Jun	Welsh Golf Classic	Wales	Mark James	New tournament
21–24 Jun	Greater Manchester Open	England	Mark McNulty
28 Jun–1 Jul	Lada English Golf Classic	England	Seve Ballesteros	New tournament
5–8 Jul	Scandinavian Enterprise Open	Sweden	Sandy Lyle
18–21 Jul	The Open Championship	Scotland	Seve Ballesteros
26–29 Jul	Dutch Open	Netherlands	Graham Marsh
2–5 Aug	Sun Alliance Match Play Championship	Scotland	Des Smyth
9–12 Aug	Benson and Hedges International Open	England	Maurice Bembridge
16–19 Aug	Braun German Open	West Germany	Tony Jacklin
23–26 Aug	Carroll's Irish Open	Republic of Ireland	Mark James
30 Aug–2 Sept	Swiss Open	Switzerland	Hugh Baiocchi
6–8 Sept	European Open	England	Sandy Lyle
20–23 Sept	SOS Talisman TPC	England	Michael King
3–6 Oct	Dunlop Masters	Wales	Graham Marsh
25–28 Oct	Lancome Trophy	France	Johnny Miller

Order of Merit

The PGA European Tour's money list was known as the "Order of Merit". It was based on a points system, which meant that some players could finish lower than others despite accumulating more prize money.

Position	Player	Country	Prize money (£)
1	Sandy Lyle	Scotland	49,233
2	Seve Ballesteros	Spain	47,411
3	Mark James	England	38,534
4	Dale Hayes	South Africa	32,540
5	Michael King	England	29,725
6	Brian Barnes	Scotland	28,204
7	Ken Brown	Scotland	25,407
8	Antonio Garrido	Spain	24,665
9	Tony Jacklin	England	22,179
10	Neil Coles	England	21,351

See also

• Golfers with most European Tour wins

References

External links

• 1979 season results on the PGA European Tour website
• 1979 Order of Merit on the PGA European Tour website