The European Challenge Tour was first established in 1989.

The first winner of the Challenge Tour Rankings was England's Neal Briggs.

Since that first season many of the world's finest players have competed on what is now widely considered to be Europe's top developmental tour: Thomas Bjørn (1995), Justin Rose (1999), Tommy Fleetwood (2011), Brooks Koepka (2013), Tyrell Hatton (2013), Matt Fitzpatrick (2014), Ryan Fox (2016), Robert Macintyre (2018), Adrian Meronk (2019), Nicolai Hojgaard (2019) and Rasmus Hogjaard (2019) are all former Challenge Tour players.

The top 20 on the Road to Mallorca at the end of the season all earn promotion to the DP World Tour.

The winner of the Road to Mallorca Rankings receives a Silver Salver (first awarded in 2009), and Category 15 membership of the DP World Tour.

The Road to Mallorca is a season-long competition spanning 30 tournaments in 19 countries, which culminates at Club de Golf Alcanada on the Balearic island of Mallorca.