It’s been a fairly quiet offseason for the team at From the Locker Room, there hasn’t been too much action to cover with courses frozen or flooded since the start of the year, so we were delighted when we got the call from EuroDov HQ to come down and have a chat.

It’s always a delight arriving at HQ, with its plush sofas and high-tech infrastructure, beats the smelly old locker rooms we usually have to hang out in talking about how “it’s a cold one today lads,” with every octogenarian that passes through them.

Anyway, we digress, as we were sat in those fancy executive level leather conference chairs and admired our weather beaten faces in the mahogany conference table, polished within an inch of its life, asking ourselves is this where all the players fees go, Tour Secretary, David McColgan, graced us with his presence.

It’s not often you are granted a sit down with the Secretary, and we’ve come to learn, when you are, it’s because something big is about to be announced. So, we all sat up, stiffened our backs and leaned in for the reveal.

“Thanks for joining me today, folks, this offseason the Tour has been speaking with the membership to seek their views on the future of the competition schedule.

It’s been a busy offseason onboarding several new members, primarily to compete in the Q-School format, and that has been encouraging. But as any player who has been around the Tour for a number of years will know we’re always looking at what’s next, and how we can innovate for the membership.

It has long been commented that we have no specific Senior event on Tour, despite having a number of players who might come under that category. Equally, whilst the Tour holds 4 Major events, which truly stand out on Tour and stand alone compared to other events, we do not have any form of Championship format.

Our player outreach programme undertook an extensive body of work to look at the concept of a Championship, a way of creating an event and a playing field that is of Major quality.

The feedback from the players was a resounding yes on the concept, 89.5% of respondents supported the introduction of such an event.

When we looked at individual events there was a 100% support for Senior Championship, with over 50 winning out (67%) as the age cut off.

Looking at a wider Championship there was 74% support for a scratch Championship and 98% support for handicap Championship.

For the Senior Championship there was a mixed response between a strokeplay 18-hole or 36-hole competition and no support at all for a matchplay format to be used.

In terms of the wider Championship there was a spread of support for the format including strokeplay and matchplay format, with no clear winner.

With this feedback in mind the Tour is announcing today that the inaugural event of The Championships will take play on Sunday July 6th, 2025.”

There we have it folks, it’s official, we’ve got a new event in town. But not just one event, there’ll be three on offer the EuroDov Tour Championship, 2013 Cup and the Senior Open.

Tour Secretary McColgan explains the formats and where the first event will take place.

“We thought long and hard about the venue but there was always one winner, Kinross Golf Club. It is where the Tour began all those years ago and whilst it is on the Tour rota for the RyDov Cup, we do not play any singles strokeplay over it, so it becomes a very different beast when every shot counts.

As for the format the Tour has thought quite extensively about a format that is both befitting of the event and also unique from the rest of the tournaments on offer.

The Senior Championship will be a 36-hole, full handicap allowance, strokeplay event, with the combined scores of rounds on the Montgomery and Bruce deciding the winner.

The EuroDov Tour Championship [ETC] and the 2013 Cup will take a slightly different format. The 36 holes will act as a qualifier for matchplay ties later in the week.

For the ETC the top four scratch scores over 36 holes will qualify for the semi-finals, to be played on the following Friday, with the final played on the Sunday [all matchplay matches to be played on the Montgomery Course].

For the 2013 Cup the top four net scores over 36 holes [excluding those who qualify for the ETC in the scratch category] will qualify for the semi-finals, to be played on the following Friday, with the final played on the Sunday [all matchplay matches to be played on the Bruce Course].

Senior players will be eligible to qualify for the ETC and the 2013 Cup should their scores qualify.

The Tour has also reviewed the Montgomery Cup and the Bruce Shield, traditionally played for in the morning format of the RyDov Cup.

As of 2025 these events will be competed for during The Championships with the Montgomery Cup moving from an 18-hole, full handicap allowance, strokeplay event, toa 36-hole, full handicap allowance, strokeplay event.

The Bruce Shield will also change from an 18-hole to 36-hole competition but retain it’s 18+ handicap qualification.

As a result of this qualification for the Invitational Tournament will be moved from the RyDov Cup morning singles to the Championships with the top 8 best net scores qualifying for the following years Major.
The Tour looks forward to this new event in 2025 and appreciates there is a lot of information to take in at this time.

We’ll be communicating this out in number of ways to the membership and we hope to see a strong field compete in the first ever Championships week.”

There certainly is a lot to take in there, 3 new events, changes 2 two of the longest standing events on Tour and a change to the qualification of the Invitational Tournament.

EuroDov Reporter will be back later to break down what it all means and we’ll keep you up to date as the season progresses and the field is confirmed.