Europe-based events are nearly all played in Western Europe, with the most lucrative of them taking place in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France and Spain.

The PGA European Tour is a golfer-controlled organisation whose primary purpose is to maximise the income of tournament golfers.

This would later become known as the Order of Merit, and at different times has been calculated using stroke average, a points system and money earned.

By the post-World War II period prize money was becoming more significant, with sponsors being attracted by the introduction of television coverage, and as such it was becoming more feasible for professional golfers to make a living by playing alone.

However even into the 1960s and 1970s, the majority of tournaments in Europe were still organised separately by the host golf club or association, or a commercial promoter.

In 1972 The Professional Golfers' Association created an integrated "European tour" with the inclusion of eight major tournaments in Continental Europe on their Order of Merit schedule.

For several years, the British PGA and continental circuits continued to run separately, each with their own Order of Merit.

[12] In its early years the season ran for six months from April to October, and was based entirely in Europe, mainly in Great Britain and Ireland.

This was extra prize money which was distributed at the end of the season to the most successful players of the year—but only golfers who had played in a high number of the European Tour's events could receive a share.

Shortly afterwards the tour also made its debut in the former Soviet Bloc at the 1994 Czech Open, but much less has come of this development as participation in golf in the former Soviet region remains low and sponsors there are unable to compete financially with their Western European rivals for the limited number of slots available on the main tour each summer.

In 1998, the European Tour added the three U.S. majors – the Masters Tournament, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open – to its official schedule.

Players such as Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have taken advantage of this to play the PGA and European Tours concurrently.

[15] In 2016 the 13-event minimum was changed to five events, not counting the four majors and four WGCs;[16] while this change did not affect players eligible for all the majors and WGCs, it made it easier for players not eligible for these to retain European Tour membership while playing a full PGA Tour schedule.

This status is reflected by the minimum world ranking points available in each tours respective tournaments, and prize money available.

However, this includes the majors and World Golf Championships, which are the most lucrative on the schedule, so the difference for regular tournaments is substantially higher.

[22] During the late twentieth century, the European Tour was traditionally the first overseas move for outstanding players from non-European countries, particularly in the Commonwealth, long a major source for elite golfers, such as Greg Norman, Nick Price and Ernie Els.

This has ebbed away as leading players continued to base themselves in the United States and several major European countries, such as Germany and Italy, have not regularly produced high-ranked golfers, as was formerly anticipated.

However, since the late-1990s more young golfers from around the world are starting their careers directly in the United States, often having attended college as amateurs, usually with golf scholarships, before turning professional.

For example, former world number one amateur, Peter Uihlein, announced in December 2011 that he would not return for his final semester at Oklahoma State University and would begin professional play in Europe the following month, both through sponsor's exemptions on the main European Tour and on the developmental Challenge Tour.

Days before the start of the 2014 Ryder Cup, American golf journalist Bob Harig noted,In simple terms, the European Tour loses money in non-Ryder Cup years, makes a tidy profit in years the event is played in the United States (where the PGA of America, not the PGA Tour, owns the event and reaps the majority of the income), and then hits the lottery in years the tournament is staged in Europe.

Earlier this year, Golfweek reported that the European Tour made more than 14 million pounds in pre-tax profit in 2010, the last time the Ryder Cup was staged in Europe.

[4] Harig also added that the PGA European Tour extracts significant concessions from Ryder Cup venues.

It is calculated in euro, although around half of the events have prize funds which are fixed in other currencies, mainly pounds sterling or U.S. dollars.

In addition, elite golfers often earn several times as much from endorsements and golf-related business interests as they do from prize money.

[36] The European Tour Golfer of the Year was an award handed by a panel comprising members of the Association of Golf Writers and commentators from television and radio.