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.

Zeitplan

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	Masters Tournament*	Vereinigte Staaten	Fuzzy Zoeller (n/a)
12–15 Apr	Portuguese Open	Portugal	Brian Barnes (7)
19–22 Apr	Spanish Open	Spanien	Dale Hayes (4)
26–29 Apr	Madrid Open	Spanien	Simon Hobday (2)
3–6 May	Italian Open	Italien	Brian Barnes (8)
10–13 May	French Open	Frankreich	Bernard Gallacher (5)
17–20 May	Colgate PGA Championship	England	Vicente Fernández (2)
25–28 May	Martini International	England	Greg Norman (2)
31 May – 3 Jun	B.A./Avis Open	Jersey	Sandy Lyle (1)
7–10 Jun	Belgian Open	Belgien	Gavan Levenson (1)
14–17 Jun	U.S. Open*	Vereinigte Staaten	Hale Irwin (n/a)
14–17 Jun	Welsh Golf Classic	Wales	Mark James (2)	New tournament
21–24 Jun	Greater Manchester Open	England	Mark McNulty (1)
28 Jun – 1 Jul	Lada English Golf Classic	England	Seve Ballesteros (9)	New tournament
5–8 Jul	Scandinavian Enterprise Open	Schweden	Sandy Lyle (2)
18–21 Jul	The Open Championship	Scotland	Seve Ballesteros (10)
26–29 Jul	Dutch Open	Niederlande	Graham Marsh (5)
2–5 Aug	PGA Championship*	Vereinigte Staaten	David Graham (n/a)
2–5 Aug	Sun Alliance Match Play Championship	Scotland	Des Smyth (1)
9–12 Aug	Benson and Hedges International Open	England	Maurice Bembridge (6)
16–19 Aug	Braun German Open	West Germany	Tony Jacklin (6)
23–26 Aug	Carroll's Irish Open	Republic of Ireland	Mark James (3)
30 Aug – 2 Sep	Swiss Open	Schweiz	Hugh Baiocchi (5)
6–9 Sep	European Open	England	Sandy Lyle (3)
20–23 Sep	SOS Talisman TPC	England	Michael King (1)
3–6 Oct	Dunlop Masters	Wales	Graham Marsh (6)
11–14 Oct	Suntory World Match Play	England	Bill Rogers (n/a)	Unofficial event
25–28 Oct	Lancome Trophy	Frankreich	Johnny Miller (n/a)	Unofficial event

*The three majors played in the United States were not official money events, but wins in them were retroactively made official.

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

See also

• List of golfers with most European Tour wins

External links

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