During a season on Europe’s top developmental tour the next wave of golfing talent play many different formats.
Predominantly Challenge Tour tournaments are strokeplay events contested over four days, where the player who takes the fewest strokes to complete 72 holes is crowned as champion.
But as part of the European Tour’s drive to innovate, there are a number of unique events on the Challenge Tour's International Schedule which are different to traditional golf tournaments.
In 2019 the Jordan Mixed Open presented by Ayla became the first professional golf tournament to bring male, female and senior golfers together in one field to compete for the same prize.
A total of 40 players from each of the Challenge Tour, the over-50s Legends Tour and the Ladies European Tour, as well as three high-level amateur golfers, made up the 123-player field who played over 54 holes for one trophy.
Players from the respective Tours competed from different tees – Challenge Tour players faced a 7,100-yard course, Legends Tour players took on approximately 6,601 yards and Ladies European Tour players were up against approximately 6,139 yards.
In 2019 the Challenge Tour broke new ground by introducing the ISPS HANDA World Invitational Men | Women, presented by Modest! Golf Management to its schedule, which incorporates both a men’s and a women’s field under one banner to compete for equal prize funds in the same event.
Elsewhere, the innovative Andalucía Match Play 9 – first played in 2017 – includes both strokeplay and matchplay in the same event, with two days of regular 36-hole strokeplay followed by a matchplay section over the weekend.
