“We are truly the global tour”

This weekend’s biggest golf event is being played on the DP World Tour. Next weekend’s biggest golf event will also be when the circuit formerly known as the European Tour concludes its season at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Why is this significant? Because this is often not true. Because the end of the season is as good a time as any to take stock of a sports league. And because the DP World Tour occupies a particularly attractive position in the global geopolitics of golf. Rory McIlroy said earlier this week that the tour “could have a few different options going forward,” suggesting it’s not currently where it wants to be — but could soon be heading in that direction. So where is DPWT now, anyway?

“We are truly the global tour”

It’s hard to quickly summarize how fascinating and aspirational things are about the DP World Tour, which showcases golf in all corners of the globe. This year, for example, the circuit spread its 44 tournaments across five continents and 24 countries.

There are also some reasons for optimism. The DPWT revised its schedule ahead of this season to make it more coherent for both players and fans; they began 2024 in the Middle East and Africa, headed to Asia in April and May and then returned to mainland Europe for its traditional summer season, which features non-stop national openings and nicely centers around the Open Championship and Scottish Open.

Then things really started well in September; when the Back 9 course welcomed an influx of PGA Tour pros who had finished their seasons, including an Irish Open on course no. 1 in the world, went from there to the annual star-studded trip to Wentworth and then jumped into the national open in Spain and France, as well as hosting a star-studded field at the St. Louis-based Dunhill Links. Andrews. Those events saw increased personal attendance and there was a 13 percent increase in viewership on Sky Sports, drawing on trends from elsewhere in sport. If the DP World Tour were the only golf tour in the world, top pros would be begging to play it.

But it is especially NO. And while this autumn has given us a full picture of the potential of the DPWT – American fans, for example, woke up to see McIlroy’s breathtaking Royal County Down battle for the Irish Open title, a tournament that closed before their favorite NFL team even started. off — this week’s penultimate episode reveals a tour de force of an identity crisis.

Let’s start with what DP World Tour says. Here’s CEO Guy Kinnings in one great interview with The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster earlier this week:

“…we are truly the global tour,” he said. “This is what we have been doing for 50 years. We have played in every corner of the world and developed relationships, worked with different cultures and the tour has evolved so that we play and become the root of all the best international talent.

The “global tour” remark reads as a blow to LIV, which has boasted about expanding the reach of the game but, in 2024, has played seven of its 14 events in the United States. The PGA Tour also boasts its global reach, but plays most of its events stateside, as well; Their alliance means that the DP World Tour serves in some ways as the international arm of the PGA Tour. Others have called it the PGA Tour’s “feeder tournament,” but Kinnings disputes that characterization.

“Whenever people say ‘you’re a feeder tour’ I say ‘no we’re not’,” he told the Scotsman. “Take a look at what this incredible national opening tournament is all about with so much history. If part of it is to nurture the talent, then absolutely because it allows the best talent in the world to come out and that will always be a result.”

I would agree that, although it now literally feeds its best players on the PGA Tour, the DPWT is not only a feeder tour. It’s different things to different people at different times. They are using the tournament to their advantage; the tournament just needs to ensure that it is a mutually beneficial relationship. Back to this week’s pitch, then: Take a look and you’ll see what I mean.

Graduates

The “feeder tour” discourse surfaced when, two years ago, the DPWT and PGA Tours announced that the top 10 finishers in the Race to Dubai who did not already have PGA Tour cards would earn them for the season next. This was great news for the players, who suddenly had a direct route to the best tournament in the world. It was a little less clear what was in it for their home tour. Last year this meant the likes of Bob MacIntyre and Matthieu Pavon played more in the US on the PGA Tour and less on the worldwide DPWT. Next year that will be the case for a whole new group of rising stars, including Rasmus Hojgaard and Matteo Manassero.

Niklas Norgaard, a Danish pro currently ranked No. 7 in the Race to Dubai, made his priorities clear: “My main goal for these (last two tournaments) is to close that top 10,” he said. And 36-hole tournament leader Paul Waring admitted he too was dreaming of graduation. “There are bigger things in my career that I want to go and do,” he said, referring to the majors and the PGA Tour.

All of these professionals speak highly of DPWT, and graduates often express how much they miss them after they leave. But it’s part of her identity now: as a stepping stone to something bigger. And so most DPWT members playing this week are wondering what could happen if they win one of those 10 golden tickets.

stardom

Unlike most of the DPWT season, there are top pros from Europe and beyond in Abu Dhabi this week. Rory McIlroy is the headliner, of course, and his Ryder Cup teammates Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose and Bob MacIntyre are also there, as are Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee and more. More stars might still be here if they were in better health; Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg are among those to be rested as they recover from injury.

Some of those who made the trip did so because they believe in their home tour and want to support it. But there are also other reasons. The DPWT has ensured they can play the circuit on their terms, and so they parachute into the end of their PGA Tour schedule, returning to play for the biggest prizes and the biggest points. DPWT and supporting their Ryder Cup qualification in the process. This is not a criticism of those players – just an acknowledgment of golf’s hierarchy and its downstream effects. Consider that from January to June, zero top-20 players and only two top-50 players started on the DP World Tour. A few other established venues start around the links season, but mostly they go through the spring and summer and stop again for the fall, a season the PGA Tour has left to the entire NFL anyway.

McIlroy has a lot to gain from this final stretch: he is eager to build on his sixth Dubai Open title, which he is almost certain to do this week or next. But he’s in that position largely because of his play in the majors, which count toward the total. McIlroy played two DP World events in January, but didn’t play another (aside from the majors and the co-sanctioned Genesis Scottish Open) until September. He is able to add to his legacy in this tournament without being a member of the week. He admits it’s an imperfect balance for the league.

“I think hopefully we’ll get more than just the patch at the end of the year,” McIlroy said earlier this week when asked about the state of the tournament. “There has to be several tournaments spread throughout the year for the tournament to remain relevant, not just over a four-month period, but a little bit longer than that.

“Yeah, look, we’ll see what happens. I think I’ve articulated that I think the European Tour is in a good place because there can be a few different options going forward.”

If that last part is kind of covert and open, well, that’s the future of professional gaming. But should McIlroy be at the helm, he has made it clear that his dream vision for golf’s future centers on an international schedule of events with meaning and history – a vision that matches that of his home circuit. In the meantime, however, appearances by her brand of professionals are few and far between.

The benefits of LIV

Although their status is rather murky long-term, thanks to the forgotten appeal, some LIV pros have access to DPWT events this season and so Tyrrell Hatton, Joaquin Niemann and Adrian Meronk are representing the breakaway league in Abu Dhabi this week. (Jon Rahm might have been here too, were it not for the recent birth of his third child.) LIV pros can’t play the PGA Tour, but can play here for now, meaning these events are valuable opportunities to collect world ranking points, maintain Ryder Cup eligibility and mingle with their former colleagues on a more established tour .

While some professionals resigned their memberships and suffered the consequences of their departure, this particular crop of professionals seems to be having their cake and enjoying it too.

“I don’t know, it feels like a yo-yo, doesn’t it,” Hatton said of a possible long-term truce between the warring parties. “It feels like it’s getting close and then it doesn’t sound like it’s close. I’m going to play golf where I want to play and we’ll go from there.”

The Giving Tour

So LIV alumni, stars and pros all seem to be taking, a la carte, from the old world tour. They’re giving, too — TV ratings wouldn’t grow without big names to help grow them — but the relationship exists on the players’ terms, and it’s not clear that the relationship is mutually beneficial, nor sustainable in the long term.

Kinnings is right that it is much more than just a feeder tour; these pros would never come in to play a Korn Ferry Tour event, for example. DPWT also has many assets – epic locations, generations of history and global appeal.

Kinnings also expressed optimism in the ongoing talks between the DPWT, the PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF. And while he may be forgotten by the three tournaments, he represents an essential piece of golf’s global puzzle.

Anyway, enjoy the golf this weekend and next. Think who might jump on the PGA Tour for the 2025 season, or which LIV pros might be gunning for a spot in the Ryder Cup. And enjoy the tournament itself, too, as the culmination of a cool but not perfect tournament season. The DP World Tour is in oblivion. That means, at some point soon, it will probably come out.

“>