2004 European Tour
The 2004 European Tour was the 33rd golf season since the European Tour officially began in 1972. The 2004 season consisted of 45 official money events. This included four major championships and three World Golf Championships, which were also sanctioned by the PGA Tour. Ernie Els ran away with the Order of Merit
Main tournaments
For details of what happened in the main tournaments of 2004, including the major championships and the World Golf Championships, see 2004 in golf.
Table of results
The numbers in brackets after the winners' names show the number of career wins they had on the European Tour up to and including that event. This is only shown for members of the European Tour. To give such a number for non-members would misrepresent the amount of time some international golfers spend on the European Tour; as the Tour co-sanctions the major championships and World Golf Championships events, some top players accumulate a significant number of wins in European Tour sanctioned events without really playing on it.
Order of Merit
In 2004, the European Tour's money list was known as the "Order of Merit". It was calculated in euro, although around half of the events had prize funds which were fixed in other currencies, mostly either British pounds or U.S. dollars. In these instances the amounts were converted into euro at the exchange rate for the week that the tournament was played. The top 10 golfers in 2004 were:
| Position | Player | Country | Prize money (€) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ernie Els |  South Africa |
4,061,905 |
| 2. | Retief Goosen | South Africa |
2,325,202 |
| 3. | Pádraig Harrington |  Ireland |
1,910,394 |
| 4. | Miguel Ángel Jiménez |  Spain |
1,886,237 |
| 5. | Thomas Levet |  France |
1,727,945 |
| 6. | Graeme McDowell |  Northern Ireland |
1,648,862 |
| 7. | Lee Westwood |  England |
1,592,766 |
| 8. | Darren Clarke | Northern Ireland |
1,563,803 |
| 9. | Ian Poulter | England |
1,533,158 |
| 10. | David Howell | England |
1,501,502 |
