It took a dozen questions and an abundance of platitudes for a key detail of the European Tour’s Rolex Series to be revealed. Keith Pelley, the tour’s chief executive, was asked precisely where a total shortfall of about $7.7m in prize money for three 2017 events alone would come from.
“We, along with Rolex, are bringing them [each] up to $7m,” said Pelley of the purses for the BMW Championship, the Irish Open and the Scottish Open. Therefore, a much-heralded European Tour project actually looks like costing the body – who announced a 2015 loss of nearly £8m – money. With more tournaments to be added, that subsidy will grow, dependent on precisely how much Rolex are putting into this.
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