El Challenge Tour has announced its schedule for 2025 this Monday. Spain will once again have three tournaments. One will be the Challenge de Cádiz in Sancti Petri, another in Mallorca, the grand Final of the season with the top 45, and there will be a third, the Challenge de España, whose venue is yet to be determined.
The Challenge Tour will distribute a record prize fund of 9,000,000 euros next year for the first time in its history. It consists of 29 tournaments across three continents and 18 different countries. Everything will start for the fifth consecutive year in South Africa with the SDC Open at the end of January, the first of four co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour.
In March, it will return to India with two consecutive tournaments, the Kolkata Challenge, which will be played again at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, the oldest golf club in India and the first outside Great Britain, followed by the Delhi Challenge at the Classic Golf & Country Club.
The Road to Mallorca will move in April to the United Arab Emirates for the UAE Challenge, which will take place at Al Zorah Golf Club in Ajman for the first time, followed by the Abu Dhabi Challenge, as part of the European Tour group’s long-term partnership with the Emirates Golf Federation.
In May, it will land in Europe and, as usual, in Spain. The 26th edition of the Challenge de España will be held at a course yet to be determined, kicking off a series of 18 tournaments in 20 weeks and covering 14 European countries.
The Challenge Open de Italia returns to Golf Nazionale, home of the Junior Ryder Cup, while the Challenge de Suiza returns to Golf Sempachersee, where it was held between 2010 and 2019. The 2025 schedule also includes a series of new venues. The Danish Golf Challenge heads to Bogense Golf Club, the Indoor Golf Group Challenge will now take place at Upsala Golf Club, while the Irish Challenge and the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by The R&A will be played at Killeen Castle and SCHLOSS Roxburghe, respectively.
In the final part of the schedule, a return to China to hold two consecutive events in October, the Hainan Open and the Hangzhou Open. Everything will end with the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final in Mallorca from October 30 to November 2, where the top 45 players in the ranking will compete for one of the 20 DP World Tour cards.
Those 20 players who benefit from this pathway to the DP World Tour will be guaranteed minimum earnings of 150,000 dollars for the 2026 season if they play in 15 or more events. The top five finishers will also benefit from the John Jacobs Scholarship, designed similarly to provide them with security and a solid platform for their first season in the top tier of the European Circuit.
Jamie Hodges, Challenge Tour Director, stated: “I am incredibly proud to announce our Road to Mallorca 2025 schedule, which features the largest prize fund since the creation of the Challenge Tour in 1989. The Challenge Tour continues to go from strength to strength, and our 2025 schedule celebrates the truly global nature of the Tour and showcases the diversity of our members and the places and cultures we visit. I would like to thank all our promoters, national Federations, tournament sponsors, and associated Tours for their commitment to the Challenge Tour and for helping us make this global schedule possible.”
Last season, 16 of the 21 Challenge Tour graduates retained their DP World Tour card, and three of them, Matteo Manassero, Jesper Svensson, and Frederic Lacroix, achieved victories in the Race to Dubai 2024. Six of the 2023 Challenge Tour graduates also finished within the top 50 in the Race to Dubai Rankings, while Manassero and Svensson secured their PGA Tour card.
