The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal structure which enables it to focus on maximising returns to its members through prize money, rather than on making profits for investors. The tour is run by a Board of Directors and a Players' Council. Most of the players on the tour are European, with members from more than 40 different countries internationally. The tour operates tournaments across five continents globally.
History
The U.S.-based LPGA was founded in 1950, but women's professional golf was slower to get established in Europe. In 1978 the Women's Professional Golf Association was formed as part of Professional Golfers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland and a tour was established the following year. In 1988 the tour members decided to form an independent company, the Women Professional Golfers' European Tour Limited. This new company moved away from the PGA's headquarters at The Belfry and set up its own headquarters at the Tytherington Club in Cheshire. In 1998 the Tour changed its name to European Ladies' Professional Golf Association Limited and again in July 2000 to its current name, Ladies European Tour Limited. In 2008 the tour relocated to offices at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club, which is just outside London. Getting a women's tour established in Europe was not easy. Whereas men's tour golf in Europe developed in parallel with that in the United States, the women's tour had to compete against a well established rival in the U.S. LPGA Tour from its foundation. A record 26 official money events were scheduled for the 2008 season, which also saw the introduction of a new team competition called the European Ladies Golf Cup. Also, for the first time in several years, the LET scheduled an event opposite one of the LPGA's majors, with the ABN AMRO Open held opposite the LPGA Championship. The schedule dropped to 23 official money events in 2009, but increased to 25 for 2010. In both years, the Ladies Open of Portugal was scheduled opposite the LPGA Championship. In 2010, the LET Access Series was launched as the official development tour. The Ladies European Tour organises The Solheim Cup when in Europe and in 2011, the Tour received a boost when the European side won for The Cup for the fourth time on home soil at Killeen Castle in Ireland. The success continued when Europe earned an historic first away victory at Colorado Golf Club, winning The Cup for the fifth time in 2013. In 2016, the LET took on extra significance for players looking to qualify for the Olympic Games and 30 LET players from 20 different countries participated in the Olympic golf competition at Rio 2016. In 2018, the Tour will celebrate four decades of women's professional golf as part of its 40th anniversary. In January 2020, a joint venture collaboration between the LET and the LPGA Tour was formed to increase playing opportunities for female golfers in Europe. Its board of directors includes LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley, the R&A's Chief Executive Martin Slumbers and the Chair of the LET Marta Figueras Dotti. The 2020 LET season is the first edition of the Race to Costa Del Sol.
Tournaments
The 2016 schedule featured 21 events including the Olympic Golf Competition in Rio de Janeiro. The total of events has been in steep decline since 2016; the peak was 28 in 2008. The two richest events by far are the two European Majors: The Evian Championship and the Women's British Open. In 2016, 10 other events had prize funds in excess of €450,000, with the remainder having prize funds of between €200,000 and €400,000. Total prize money from the 2016 events passed €14 million. Unlike in men's golf, the European and American tours do not share a common set of majors, although the Women's British Open and The Evian Championship are currently recognised as majors by both organisations.
2020 schedule and results
Past tour schedules
Individual LET tournaments have purses fixed in a mixture of Australian dollars, British pounds, euro, New Zealand dollars and U.S. dollars, so year on year changes in the total prize fund reflect exchange rate fluctuations as well as prize fund movements in constant currencies.
The Order of Merit is awarded to the leading money winner on the tour, though for some years in the past a points system was used. The Player's Player of the Year award is voted by the members of the Tour for the member they believe has contributed the most to the season on the Tour. The Rookie of the Year is awarded to the leading first-year player on the Order of Merit rankings.
