The European Tour – now known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons – was founded in 1972. The the first tournament was held in that April, the Open de España, and won by Spaniard Antonio Garrido.
That first season ran from April to October, and contained 20 tournaments outside of the four Majors. Eight of these tournaments were held in England and four in Scotland, but the Tour also visited Spain and Italy twice, and Ireland, France, Switzerland, West Germany and the Netherlands.
In 1982 the European Tour staged it first event outside of Europe with the Tunisian Open at El Kantaoui Golf. In 1989 the Tour visited Asia for the first time, for the Dubai Desert Classic.
In 1995 the Tour began co-sanctioning events with other Tours as the European Tour was moving to became more global and all-year-round. That February the South African PGA Championship on the Southern African Tour (now the Sunshine Tour) became the first co-sanctioned event, and the following January the Tour co-sanctioned its first tournament with the PGA Tour of Australasia.
With the formation of the World Golf Championships in 1999, the number of co-sanctioned events increased further. With the WGC and Major tournaments counting as part of the European Tour, many golfers who were not actually members of the European Tour began racking up some impressive numbers of victories on the Tour. But the seasonal winner of the Tour – originally of its Order of Merit, and since the 2008/09 season, of the Race to Dubai – who wins the Harry Vardon Trophy, has to be a member of the Tour.
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