1997 Challenge Tour

The 1997 Challenge Tour was a series of golf tournaments known as the Challenge Tour, the official development tour run by the PGA European Tour. The tour was started as the Satellite Tour in 1986 and was renamed the Challenge Tour ready for the start of the 1990 season.^[1]

The Challenge Tour Rankings was won by Italy's Michele Reale.

Tournament schedule

The table below shows the 1997 Challenge Tour schedule.^[2]

Dates	Tournament	Host country	Winner	Notes
5–8 Mar	Open de Cote d'Ivoire	Ivory Coast	Knud Storgaard
13–16 Mar	Lonrho Kenya Open	Kenya	Jorge Berendt
10–13 Apr	Is Molas Challenge	Italy	Andrew Collison
16–19 Apr	Le Pavoniere Supercal Challenge	Italy	Andrew Collison
24–27 Apr	Alianca UAP Challenger	Portugal	Anssi Kankkonen
1–4 May	Canarias Challenge	Spain	Michele Reale
15–18 May	Modena Classic Open	Italy	Jesús María Arruti
22–25 May	Matchmaker Austrian Open	Austria	Erol Simsek
30 May–1 Jun	Himmerland Open	Denmark	Mikael Lundberg
5–8 Jun	KB Golf Challenge	Czech Republic	Alex Čejka
5–8 Jun	Siab Open	Sweden	Joakim Rask
19–22 Jun	Team Erhverv Danish Open	Denmark	David Lynn
20–22 Jun	Memorial Olivier Barras	Switzerland	Raphaël Jacquelin	Unofficial money
26–29 Jun	Audi Quattro Trophy	Germany	David A. Russell
26–29 Jun	Open dei Tessali	Italy	Ivó Giner
3–6 Jul	Open des Volcans	France	Mark Litton
5–7 Jul	Neuchâtel Open	Switzerland	Erol Simsek
10–13 Jul	Volvo Finnish Open	Finland	Søren Kjeldsen
17–20 Jul	Rolex Pro-Am	Switzerland	Anssi Kankkonen
24–27 Jul	Interlaken Open	Switzerland	Mark Foster	Tournament cancelled after 1st round because of rain
24–27 Jul	BTC Slovenian Open	Slovenia	Kalle Brink
31 Jul–3 Aug	Klassis Turkish Open	Turkey	Bradley Dredge
7–10 Aug	Challenge Tour Championship	England	Greg Chalmers
21–24 Aug	Netcom Norwegian Open	Norway	Demitri Bieri
28–31 Aug	Steelcover Dutch Challenge	Netherlands	Raphaël Jacquelin
23–25 Aug	Toyota Danish PGA Championship	Denmark	Fredrik Henge
3–6 Sept	Sovereign Russian Open	Russia	Michele Reale
4–7 Sept	Öhrlings Swedish Matchplay	Sweden	Gregory Garbero
11–14 Sept	Perrier European Pro-Am	Belgium	Craig Hainline
18–21 Sept	Eulen Open Galea	Spain	Warren Bennett
23–26 Sept	BPGT Challenge	England	Olivier Edmond
25–28 Sept	Polish Open	Poland		Cancelled due to rain
2–5 Oct	Telia InfoMedia Grand Prix	Sweden	Fredrik Henge
8–11 Oct	San Paolo Vita Open	Italy	Mathew Goggin
16–19 Oct	Estoril Challenge	Portugal	José Manuel Carriles
23–26 Oct	Estoril Grand Final	Portugal	Nicolas Joakimides

Rankings

The top 15 on the Challenge Tour Rankings gained membership of the European Tour for the 1998 season.^[1]

Position	Player	Country	Prize money (£)
1	Michele Reale	Italy	51,679
2	Kalle Brink	Sweden	36,112
3	Greg Chalmers	Australia	35,267
4	Raphaël Jacquelin	France	34,538
5	Anssi Kankkonen	Finland	32,128
6	Nicolas Joakimides	France	31,497
7	David Lynn	England	31,342
8	Steen Tinning	Denmark	29,522
9	Knud Storgaard	Denmark	29,426
10	Craig Hainline	United States	29,368
11	Stephen Leaney	Australia	28,614
12	Heinz Peter Thül	Germany	27,418
13	Nicolas Vanhootegem	Belgium	26,936
14	Søren Kjeldsen	Denmark	26,581
15	Bradley Dredge	Wales	26,415

References

External links

• Official homepage of the Challenge Tour