The European Tour is still confident that a sponsor will be secured for the Scottish Open although chief executive George O’Grady’s deadline is due.
The tour released the second half of its 2012 schedule on Monday with sponsors absent for several events including the Scottish, which will return to Castle Stuart near Inverness in the prime schedule slot in the week prior to the Open Championship.
O’Grady had said in October at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship that he believed a sponsor needed to be found by the end of the year, but the Tour since announced that they intended to go ahead in the same week with a prize fund ”along similar lines” to the £3 million played for last year, suggesting that a deal with interested parties might be close.
Defending champion Luke Donald has announced he will return to Castle Stuart as will Rory McIlroy to the Irish Open, another big tour stop currently without a sponsor but returning to a prime slot in the calendar, the last weekend in June.
Scotland’s other two regular tour dates remain intact, with the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles on August 23 to 26 again the final qualifying event to make Jose Maria Olazabal’s European Ryder Cup team.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns will again be the event immediately after the Ryder Cup on October 4 to 7.
There is one new tournament, the Perth International Golf Championship in Australia on October 18, the same scheduled week at the Andalucia Masters which has yet to be confirmed to return to Valderrama.
The Race to Dubai, in the first year of a new three-year agreement, culminates with the DP World Tour Championship in the emirate on November 22.