The Alps Tour, the satellite professional tour jointly founded by the French, Austrian, Italian and Swiss golf federations, is celebrating its 20th season in 2020.
The Europe-based tour, which is organised on a non-profit making basis, was launched in 2001 to provide a testing ground for young players to gain professional tournament experience, and to create new opportunities and quality competitions for Europe’s next generation of golfing champions.
Its success as a breeding ground for future stars has been borne out by the performances of many Alps Tour graduates over the years, with England’s Matt Wallace and Eddie Pepperell, Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, Italy’s Guido Migliozzi, and Frenchman Victor Perez being just a few of the players to have enjoyed victories on the European Tour – amassing 12 titles between them.
The European Tour itself acknowledges the important role of Alps Tour, and its success in providing high level playing opportunities, by granting five Challenge Tour exemptions every year to the top five finishers in the season’s order of merit.
The 20th Alps Tour season – which tees off at the Ein Bay Open at Sokhna Golf Club in Egypt from February 18-20 – will see around 200 players from 26 countries taking part in 18 tournaments in six countries. They will be competing for an overall prize fund of €760,000, with the race to top the season’s Order of Merit expected to be as competitive as ever.
This season has seen a new alliance with the Middle East and North Africa Tour (MENA) which will enable the top five finishers in last year’s Alps Tour Order of Merit qualifying to play a full season on the MENA Tour in 2020. In return, the five top players from the 2020 Journey to Jordan on the MENA Tour earned full playing rights on Alps Tour for the 2020 season. This cooperation gives more opportunities for the best players from both tours to broaden their competitive experience.
The Alps Tour has also formed a new partnership with Spider Golf, a French company that has developed a golf app that covers statistical analysis, personalised training, course management strategy and also offers a social community. Alps Tour members will receive a special discount for the premium version of this extremely useful technology.
As another incentive for the new season, the Alps Tour is offering a €20,000 bonus to the first player that scores 240 birdies during the 2020 schedule.
To see the 2020 Alps Tour schedule, visit www.alpstourgolf.com