The European Tour on Tuesday announced its global schedule for the 2021 season featuring 42 tournaments in 24 countries, with each of the four Rolex Series events offering an increase in prize money.

The 2021 schedule will also see the return of 18 tournaments which were either cancelled or postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three of the Rolex Series events -- the season-opening Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (January 21-24), the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open (July 8-11) and the BMW Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Championship (September 9-12) -- will have a prize fund of $8 million, an increase of $1 million from previous editions.

The fourth and final Rolex series event, the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai (November 18-21), will have its prize money boosted by $1 million to $9 million.

European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said the remodeled Rolex Series events will begin the formation of a global circuit as part of their partnership with the U.S. PGA Tour.

The four events are now better positioned to attract dual-Tour members who will be able to earn Race to Dubai points, as well as Ryder Cup qualification points.

"One of the key learnings (from 2020) was to group events together in terms of their geographical location to create a more travel friendly season for our members," he said. "That is reflected in numerous concentrations of event locations."

"Another was to continue to enhance our Rolex Series events at strategic points in the global golfing calendar when the European Tour will be the focal point of golf on the world stage."

"This is one of the many aspects we will continue to develop in our strategic alliance discussions with the PGA Tour, following our historic partnership announcement last month."