The unintended consequence of the PGA Tour’s proposed changes

The PGA Tour is on the verge of sweeping change.

And with change comes consequence.

Guy Kinnings knows this better than most. As the head of DP World Tour, he witnessed (from afar at first, but now up close) how the change happened on his tour in the era of Saudi investment in pro golf.

He knows how the DP World Tour was reportedly faced with the prospect of receiving significant funding from the PIF and then how it made the decision to pursue a “strategic allianceInstead, with the PGA Tour, tying the two tours together in ways that both helped his employer (through co-sanctioned events and an infusion of investment) and hurt him (through a supplier system that destroyed the DPWT- in of talent and reduced it below him. American brother).

Now, Kinnings is watching closely as the PGA Tour stares down the barrel of another wave of changes, announced last week in a memo to players. Beginning in 2026, if the changes receive approval from the various tour boards, the effective size of the tour will move from 125 full-time members to 100, reducing the size of the largest professional golf tour in pursuit of a product more effective competition for all members. As part of the change, the Tour would also reduce the number of players promoted from its feeder tour, the Korn Ferry Tour, each year and reduce the number of Monday qualifiers at the event.

The changes are intended to improve the quality of the tournament’s weekly product, but they will come with their own set of consequences for the golf landscape, especially for those looking to break into the higher stratosphere of the pro game.

For an organization like the DP World Tour, this is not just news, this is an opportunity – an opportunity that can convince players from more diverse backgrounds to start their pro golf journeys in Europe and that can improve the quality of DP -‘s. Tours in general.

In an interview with Scotland’s Martin Dempster this week, Kinnings was keen to point out as much.

“I don’t think it’s had a huge effect,” Kinnings said, referring to the rise of the DP World Tour’s feeder tournament, the Challenger Tour, and the added resources Kinnings’ team has put into its events. “But at the same time, the announcement last week from the PAC may cause players to start looking differently at what’s the best way for them to try to get a card, and it doesn’t matter where it is.”

Under the proposed new PGA Tour structure, there would be no changes to the current “strategic partnership” with the DP World Tour, in that the top 10 finishers on the Euro Tour would still receive PGA Tour cards for the upcoming season. Meanwhile, the number of cards for professionals coming from the Korn Ferry Tour would be reduced from 30 to 20.

While this still leaves a 2-to-1 advantage for Korn Ferry Tour cards over the DP World Tour, there are advantages to playing in Europe that can benefit future tour stars, such as venue quality and access to tournaments outliers that once made the DPWT a PGA Tour competitor in the late 20th century. A new crop of stars coming through the DP world tour could then drive the foundations of his new schedule, which includes a focus on stretches of the calendar unoccupied by other major tours.

These aren’t big changes—in fact, they’re nothing yet. But for Kinnings and Co., they represent a fallout of potential PGA Tour changes that haven’t been addressed, and something that could soon benefit them.

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if more Americans started watching the DP World Tour,” Kinnings said. “If you look at the path from the Challenge Tour to the DP World Tour, it’s a very clear path and it’s worked very well. But we just have to monitor it and see what happens.”

Rest assured, the DP World Tour will be watching closely, because a smaller pro golf game could very well mean more room for the DP World Tour within it.