The Alps Tour is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with the unveiling of a new new logo and a new tagline – ‘Raising Golf Stars‘.
Founded in 2001 by the Golf Federations of France, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria, and named after the mountain range that stretches across those four countries, The Alps Tour’s purpose from the outset was to provide Europe’s best young talented players with the opportunity to build a fundamental professional tournament experience and to use it as a springboard towards higher levels.
In the last twenty years the Alps Tour has expanded its borders and visited more countries – Slovenia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Portugal and, since 2009, Spain, which quickly became an essential pillar of the organisation with its Federation. Beyond Europe, the Alps Tour has held tournaments in Morocco, Israel, Tunisia, and Egypt.
Despite the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alps Tour was able to organise a season of tournaments in 2020, resulting in a final ranking from which three players were promoted to the 2021 Challenge Tour.
On the strength of this difficult experience, Alps Tour is looking to 2021 as a new era capitalising on the success of the past and celebrating this important anniversary in style with a new tagline – “Raising Golf Stars”, which stresses its role of training ground for future golf stars – and a new logo: an ‘A’ which represents a stylised peak of a mountain, or the ambition to climb the golf rankings for the players.
“I am extremely proud of the Alps Tour family, including directors, staff and players, all together, for their strong response to the COVID-19 crisis,” said Alps Tour President Marco Durante. “Together we faced, and overcame, an unprecedented situation which forced some difficult – sometimes hard, or bold – decisions, such as postponing with short notice the second Winter series in Egypt or anticipating and moving the Qualifying School to Italy. We had the understanding of the Challenge Tour for keeping at least three spots for our top players next season, despite the freezing of their order of merit, and we had the continuous support of our founding Federations, together with sponsors and organisers, to keep the Alps Tour alive and in good health.”
He added: “I must also thank Estelle Richard, Alessandro Rogato and Alessandro Pia for their extraordinary efforts throughout the season, and my Board for its unparalleled commitment for the sake of offering playing opportunities to our members. It was also our paramount concern to have a safe environment for our players and staff: and we can now proudly state that all our precautions were successful in keeping all our tournaments Covid-free.
“The Alps Tour is turning 20 years old: as old, as young, as some of our members. Our commitment continues to be to raise future golf stars: and we are sure that we shall find some more between our players in the new season.”
Although a definitive schedule for 2021 has yet to be announced, there is a provisional schedule of tournaments for the first part of 2021. There will be 16 tournaments overall, with eight dates in Italy, three in France, two in Spain, one in Austria and two in Egypt.