Tour winners John Parry, Dan Brown and Dan Bradbury lend name in support of 2020protour

And golf’s 2020protour is an organisation reaping the benefits of having the respect of its participants.

A little money helps, and their sponsors remain important, as do companies using the one-day event to market their own goods. But word of mouth is a priceless commodity and in recent times, the success of some of Yorkshire’s finest at the very top of the continent’s food chain has reflected well on the 2020protour, a small but by no means inconsequential part of golf’s ecosystem.

It is not so long ago that this one-day event was the only show in town as sport and society inched back to normality in the early days of Covid lockdowns back in 2020. For the likes of local golfers John Parry and Dan Brown, plus Ryder Cupper Jamie Donaldson, it was a God-send, the chance to get the competitive juices flowing once again.

It meant more to Parry and Brown, though, as they stuck around and played plenty of the Monday events across the north of England on the 2020protour over the next two years. And after fighting their way into the winner’s circle on the DP World Tour, both referenced the significance of the 2020protour in helping them get back to where they felt they belonged.

Now their loyalty is reciprocated with the 2020protour hosting a series of Headline Events as part of their 2025 schedule, which sees Parry host an event at local club Harrogate, Brown at Romanby, Dan Bradbury at Wakefield, Ben Schmidt at Rotherham and Joshua Berry at Doncaster.

“It’s nice for them to give a little back to some of the routes they’ve taken onto tour,” explained former DP World Tour player, Chris Hanson, who along with fellow Huddersfield professional Adam Walker founded the 2020protour in 2019.

“There’s nothing massively different about the events, they’ve just put their names to it and if they can be there, they’ll be there. There’s no pressure on them.

“Dan Brown might be able to make it because it’s the Monday after the Open, Josh Berry’s the week of the Ryder Cup.

“We just got the winter series with amateurs involved and we wanted a summer series where we tried to maximise some prize funds and we thought it would be a nice way to get those experienced players on side, help promote the event, get more bums on seats and improve the prize fund. It’s a nice little promo for us.”

Yorkshire has 11 players eligible to play on the DP World Tour in 2025, from major winners like Matt Fitzpatrick and Danny Willett, to rookies such as Schmidt, the majority of whom passed through the 2020protour, which was designed to be a Monday event to keep costs down and fit into the busy schedule of players travelling the world.

“We were massively helpful for the likes of John Parry,” said Hanson, who was elated to see his fellow Yorkshireman win the AfrAsia Bank Mauritus Open on the top circuit before Christmas.

“And Joe Dean has forged his career off the back of playing our one-day events. Dan Brown was close to packing the game in, he’s told us if it wasn’t for our tour he wouldn’t have been playing.

“There are some nice positive stories. John Parry is currently leading the Race to Dubai money list...but he could never win our money list!”

And these endorsements have proven essential for helping the tour keep its head above water.

“It’s gets harder each year,” explained Hanson, who revealed the tour has linked up with the Condor Tour in the Midlands to give golfers another reason to play.

“But there’s a lot of golfers wanting to play, we’ve always had a good market, we’re a good product and we’re trusted. It’s certainly got harder, but the good thing is that up in the north of England there’s still a lot of golfers needing to play and there’s not many options. It’s not a niche, but we’ve got a good thing going.”