Reports: European Tour preparing for ambitious ‘Florida Swing’

The European Tour is believed to be planning an unprecedented run of events in the USA next month.

The Telegraph is reporting that the tour has lined up a trio of tournaments in Florida as a contingency in the event that the ‘Iberian Swing’ is unable to go ahead as planned because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Restrictions on travelling to and from Spain and Portugal has cast doubt over the viability of the Tenerife Open, Gran Canaria Lopesan Open and Portugal Masters, all of which are scheduled for April.

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The loss of those tournaments would leave the tour with a sizeable gap in its schedule. However, according to The Telegraph, that hole could be plugged by an ambitious run of events in the United States.

Until recently, the USA had been the preserve of the PGA Tour but that position appears to have softened as a result of a new “strategic alliance” signed by the two biggest men’s tours late last year.

The Telegraph report, published on Monday afternoon, prompted the European Tour to circulate a memo amongst its players which was first shared by Golf Digest. 

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It quotes European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley as saying: “I can confirm to you that our new partners at the PGA Tour have offered to help us in any way possible, which is a credit to them and visible evidence of the strength of our recently-announced Strategic Alliance.

“We did discuss this general idea with your Tournament Committee as part of the recent meetings we had with them on all plans and contingencies, so they were aware on your behalf.”

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He added: “Our continuing desire is to investigate all avenues available to us if, in fact, our current schedule is not feasible due to continued travel restrictions for different sections of our membership.

“As you can imagine, our preference is to stick to our current schedule. That remains our plan, but ever-changing Government rules and regulations on travel might transpire against us so we have to proactively look at all options. As always, as soon as we have any concrete information we will share it with you.”