European Tour to change 36 hole cut for 2006

The number of players making the 36-hole cut at European Tour events will be reduced to the leading 65 professionals and ties for the 2006 season, the Tour said on Wednesday.

The cut has stood at 70 and ties since the start of the 2000 season but the Tour decided on the change in response to negative feedback from its members and in a bid to improve television coverage of tournaments at weekends.

Next month's China Open, to be held at Shenzhen Golf Club from November 24 to 27, will be the first event to operate under the new guidelines.

"This is a positive move for our sponsors, our television associates, our members and for everyone associated with our tournaments," Keith Waters, the European Tour's director of international policy, said in a statement.

"It will greatly assist with the presentation and logistical operation of our tournaments at the weekends."

According to the Tour, several of its members had displayed "an increasing negativity" over the number of occasions since 2000 when weekend play has been in three-balls with two-tee starts.

"The large number of players making the cut often necessitated the above which had a negative commercial impact when television broadcasters finishing times were affected," the Tour added.

The biggest number of players making the 36-hole cut on this year's Tour was 90 at the Singapore Masters. The European Tour record is 91, set at the 2001 European Open at the K Club in Ireland.

October 13, 2005

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