2007 European Tour
The 2007 European Tour was the 36th golf season since the European Tour officially began in 1972. The Order of Merit race came down to the closing holes of the final tournament, and was won by Justin Rose for the first time despite the Englishman playing the majority of his golf in America. Rose overtook Ernie Els and held off the challenge of the defending Order of Merit champion Pádraig Harrington. The Player of the Year award was given to Harrington after his victories at The Open Championship and the Irish Open. The Sir Henry Cotton Rookie  of the Year was Martin Kaymer of Germany. Major tournaments. For a summary of the major tournaments and events of 2007, including the major championships and the World Golf Championships, see 2007 in golf. Changes for 2007. There were three new tournaments, the Joburg Open in South Africa, the Open de Andalucía in Spain and the Portugal Masters. In addition, the long-established Australian Masters joined the tour schedule and two tournaments returned after missing the 2006 season; the New Zealand Open skipped a season due to date changes, and the German Masters having not been held in 2006, came  back with a new sponsor and was re-titled as the Mercedes-Benz Championship. Schedule. The following table lists official events during the 2007 season. The season began with six tournaments in late 2006 and consisted of record 52 official money events, surpassing the 2005 and 2006 seasons. This included the four major championships and three World Golf Championships, which were also sanctioned by the PGA Tour. 29 events took place in Europe, 12 in Asia, six in the United States, three in South Africa, one in Australia and one in New Zealand. The PGA Tour's introduction of the  FedEx Cup prompted the European Tour to extend the season into November and several tournaments moved away from their traditional dates. Unofficial events. The following events were sanctioned by the European Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official. Order of Merit. In 2007, the European Tour's money list was known as the "Order of Merit". It was calculated in euro, although around half of the events had prize funds which were fixed in other currencies, mostly either British pounds or U.S. dollars. In these instances the amounts were converted into euro at the exchange rate  for the week that the tournament was played. The top 10 golfers in 2007 were: Tiger Woods earned more money in European Tour events in 2007 than any other golfer, but was not a member of the European Tour so was not eligible for the Order of Merit.