New York, Dec 18 (IANS): The Challenge Tour, which provides players seats to the World Tour and European Tour and has four co-sanctioned events, will return to India in March with events at Delhi and Kolkata.

The Challenge Tour returns to India in March with the Delhi Challenge and Kolkata Challenge, the latter of which will be played at Royal Calcutta Golf Club - the oldest golf club in India and the first outside of Great Britain.

Players will compete for a total prize money of more than €8,000,000 for the second consecutive year and the 2024 Road to Mallorca will begin with the SDC Open at the start of February, the first of four co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.

The Road to Mallorca heads to the United Arab Emirates in April with back-to-back events, the Abu Dhabi Challenge followed by the UAE Challenge, as part of the European Tour group’s long-term partnership with the Emirates Golf Federation.

The Challenge Tour will head to Spain in May for the Challenge de Espana, which will kick-start a run of 18 tournaments in 21 weeks and see the Road to Mallorca travel through 14 countries in Europe, including Poland for the Rosa Challenge Tour and Ireland for the Irish Challenge at The K Club, the 2006 Ryder Cup venue, which hosted the Irish Open in 2023 and will do so again in 2025 and 2027.

The Road to Mallorca returns to China for back-to-back events in October, the Hainan Open followed by the Hangzhou Open, which offers a final opportunity to tee it up in the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A.

The Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final returns to Club de Golf Alcanada for the third successive year for the end-of-season showpiece from October 31 – November 3, as the top 45 players on the Rankings battle it out in Mallorca for one of the life-changing 20 DP World Tour cards.

Those 20 players who benefit from this formal pathway to the DP World Tour will then be eligible for the DP World Tour’s Earnings Assurance Programme, guaranteeing them minimum earnings of $150,000 for the 2025 season if they play in 15 or more events.

The top five graduates will also benefit during their first season on the European Tour group’s top tier.

Jamie Hodges, Challenge Tour Director, said: “I would like to thank all our promoters, national Federations and tournament sponsors who are absolutely integral to the success of the Challenge Tour and have helped make this global schedule possible.

“The number of different countries we are visiting, the variety of courses and conditions, in addition to the overall experiences the players get on the Challenge Tour will ensure they are fully equipped to make the step up to the DP World Tour.

“The success of our graduates on the DP World Tour in 2023, as well as the impressive start made by our graduates so far in 2024, highlights the calibre of golfer that the Challenge Tour continues to produce. Their careers benefited from our formal pathway to the DP World Tour and following in their footsteps is a great incentive for our members competing on the Challenge Tour in 2024.

“We are also very grateful for the commitment of Rolex, The R&A, and DP World through their title partnership of the DP World Tour, all of which has helped us raise prize funds and increase playing opportunities for our members.”

Last season, 25 former Challenge Tour players won on the DP World Tour - including 2022 graduates Matthew Baldwin, Tom McKibbin, Daniel Hillier and Todd Clements, while six finished inside the top ten on the DP World Tour Rankings in Partnership with Rolex.

Matthieu Pavon became the 213th former Challenge Tour player to win on the DP World Tour when he secured a four-shot triumph at the Acciona Open de España presented by Madrid, while the total number of wins by Challenge Tour alumni is now 570.

Six former Challenge Tour players helped Team Europe to their dominant 16½-11½ victory against the United States in the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone, including debutants Robert MacIntyre and Nicolai Højgaard, who went on to win the DP World Tour Championship last month to finish second on the Race to Dubai.