WHAT in essence will be a World Tour in golf will come into existence in 1999. The events on it will be run jointly by a committee consisting of representatives of the current four major championships and of a new body, the PGA Tours International Federation which will consist of representatives of the world's five principal tours.

At first there will be only seven events, the current four majors and three to be created by the new body. Ken Schofield, the Executive Director of the PGA European Tour said yesterday: "We will be dedicated to building on what already exists. We hope to have three new championship events, consisting of a 72-hole stroke play on the lines of the Johnnie Walker World Championship, an expanded version of the Andersen Consulting match Play Championship and a World Team Championship, perhaps along the lines of the current World Cup and maybe working with the present organisers."

Schofield hopes that the current Sony rankings, perhaps with modifications, will be used to determine who plays in what, with all the four majors giving their blessing for the first time to the idea of players getting into their event because of their position on the rankings. The Open and the US PGA already do this extensively; the US Open and the Masters do not.

Schofield, who has been trying for years to get more Europeans into the majors, said yesterday: "It should become much easier for the players to move between tours. The Americans, under their new commissioner Tim Fincham, do see life more internationally."