2006 Challenge Tour

The 2006 Challenge Tour was a series of golf tournaments known as the Challenge Tour, the official development tour run by the PGA European Tour. The tour was started as the Satellite Tour in 1986 and was renamed the Challenge Tour ready for the start of the 1990 season.

The Challenge Tour Rankings was won by Wales' Mark Pilkington. Frenchman Adrien Mörk shot the first 59 in the history of the PGA European Tour's three tours at the Moroccan Classic.

Tournament schedule

The table below shows the 2006 Challenge Tour schedule. The season started in December 2005 and comprised 31 tournaments played in Europe, Latin America, East Africa and Central Asia.

The numbers in brackets after winners' names indicate the player's total number of wins on the Challenge Tour including that event.

Dates	Tournament	Host country	Winner	Notes
1–4 Dec	Abierto Mexicano Corona	Mexico	Antonio Maldonado (1)
8–11 Dec	Abierto Visa de la República	Argentina	Kevin Stadler (1)
2–5 Feb	Abierto Movistar Guatemala Open	Guatemala	Miguel Carballo (1)
9–12 Feb	Kai Fieberg Costa Rica Open	Costa Rica	Johan Axgren (2)
22–26 Feb	Estoril Challenge	Portugal	Kyron Sullivan (1)
9–12 Mar	Tusker Kenya Open	Kenya	Johan Axgren (3)
6–9 Apr	Peugeot Challenge R.C.G. El Prat	Spain	David Drysdale (2)
27–30 Apr	Tessali Metaponto Open di Puglia e Basilicata	Italy	Anthony Snobeck (1)
11–14 May	Parco di Monza Challenge	Italy	Álvaro Salto (3)
18–21 May	Telenet Trophy	Belgium	Toni Karjalainen (2)
25–28 May	Tikida Hotels Agadir Moroccan Classic	Morocco	Adrien Mörk (1)	Mörk shot 59 in second round
31 May–3 Jun	Morson International Pro-am Challenge	England	Álvaro Quirós (1)
8–11 Jun	Thomas Bjørn Open	Denmark	Marcus Higley (1)
15–18 Jun	Aa St Omer Open	France	César Monasterio (2)	Dual-ranking event with the European Tour
15–18 Jun	Lexus Open	Norway	Kalle Brink (3)
22–25 Jun	Credit Suisse Challenge	Switzerland	Francisco Cea (2)
29 Jun–2 Jul	Open Mahou de Madrid	Spain	Juan Parron (1)
6–9 Jul	Scottish Challenge	Scotland	Sam Walker (1)
13–16 Jul	Texbond Open	Italy	Carlos del Moral (1)
20–23 Jul	MAN NÖ Open	Austria	Rafael Cabrera-Bello (1)
27–30 Jul	Ryder Cup Wales Challenge	Wales	Sion Bebb (1)
3–6 Aug	Ireland Ryder Cup Challenge	Ireland	John Wade (1)
10–13 Aug	Vodafone Challenge	Germany	Martin Kaymer (1)
17–20 Aug	Rolex Trophy	Switzerland	Alexander Norén (1)
24–27 Aug	ECCO Tour Championship	Denmark	James Heath (1)
31 Aug–3 Sep	Telia Challenge Waxholm	Sweden	Rafael Echenique (1)
14–17 Sep	Open des Volcans - Challenge de France	France	Martin Kaymer (2)
22–24 Sep	OKI Mahou Challenge de España	Spain	Adrien Mörk (2)
28 Sep–1 Oct	Kazakhstan Open	Kazakhstan	Mark Pilkington (1)
5–8 Oct	Golf Open International de Toulouse	France	Julien Foret (1)
19–22 Oct	Apulia San Domenico Grand Final	Italy	James Hepworth (2)

Rankings

The top 20 on the Challenge Tour Rankings gained membership of the European Tour for the 2007 season.

Position	Player	Country	Prize money (€)
1	Mark Pilkington	Wales	119,152
2	Johan Axgren	Sweden	105,699
3	Alexander Norén	Sweden	99,631
4	Martin Kaymer	Germany	93,321
5	James Hepworth	England	84,236
6	Kyron Sullivan	Wales	83,364
7	Rafael Echenique	Argentina	82,737
8	Juan Parron	Spain	71,089
9	Sam Walker	England	69,853
10	Marcus Higley	England	67,851
11	Shaun Webster	England	65,536
12	Gary Lockerbie	England	64,073
13	Rafael Cabrera-Bello	Spain	62,849
14	James Heath	England	60,346
15	Gareth Davies	England	60,189
16	Lee S. James	England	59,704
17	Jean-Baptiste Gonnet	France	59,343
18	Álvaro Quirós	Spain	57,278
19	Mads Vibe-Hastrup	Denmark	52,485
20	Adrien Mörk	France	52,136

See also

• 2006 European Tour

External links

• Official homepage of the Challenge Tour