PGA, DP World Tour grow partnership
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour announced this week that they have upgraded their previous “strategic alliance” to an “operational joint venture partnership” as part of a 13-year deal. What that actually means is the PGA Tour is increasing its investment in the circuit formally known as the European Tour, including prize fund levels, which are set to grow annually for the next five years. As part of the new joint venture, the PGA Tour will increase its existing stake in the European Tour Productions from 15 percent to 40 percent, and use the circuit’s existing global footprint to coordinate a worldwide schedule.
The joint venture also provides a formal pathway from the DP World Tour to the PGA Tour for the first time. As such, beginning in 2023, the leading ten players on the end of season DP World Tour Rankings [in addition to those already exempt] will earn PGA Tour cards.
It also provides a clearly defined pathway for top players around the world. Players from the Sunshine Tour and ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia, with whom the DP World Tour already has existing strategic alliances, will enjoy a formal pathway to the DP World Tour.
The strategic alliance originally was struck in November 2020 as a defense mechanism against the formation of the Premier Golf League and to fend off the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. Members of the DP World Tour reportedly have been split, with some players wanting DP World Tour commissioner Keith Pelley to issue harsh penalties on defectors to LIV Golf and others asking for him to spurn the PGA Tour and reach an agreement with LIV Golf. In many ways, the future of men’s professional golf hung in the balance as Pelley weighed the tour’s options. This marks a significant victory for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
The original partnership included collaboration on issues such as media, playing opportunities, scheduling and prize funds and was widely perceived as the first step toward an eventual merger of the two bodies.
Here are five things to know about the new arrangement:
● 1. This wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction to LIV Golf (but LIV Golf accelerated the timeline).
Talk of a more global schedule has been going on for decades back at least to when Greg Norman was World No. 1, and trending that way. But Norman’s momentum with LIV Golf surely accelerated the process.
Pelley noted that in 2016, he first sat down with then-pga Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem to discuss how the two leading circuits in the game could work more closely together.
“We had this relationship with the WGCS and I was relatively new into the position. And I said, ‘It doesn’t make sense. We are a dynamic Tour with National Opens, creating – we were in the midst of creating an elite series.’
“So we started the alliance and came to that in November of 2020,” Pelley added.
● 2. Pelley says no talks with LIV since summer 2021.
The DP World Tour chief was asked about rumors that he attended the debut event of LIV Golf earlier this month near London, and was asked whether he had talked to LIV Golf in recent months about forming a relationship.
“You know what?” Pelley said. “I’m actually going to read you what I read to the players just an hour ago. So let me try to clear that up. In July of 2021, in Malta, we viewed an unsolicited presentation from P54, the marketing agent representing Golf Saudi. In our September board meeting that year we showed the details of that presentation to the board. After a discussion, in our assessment, we realized the numbers were less compelling than Raine Capital and the Premier Golf League proposal we turned down nine months earlier.
“Out of respect for all parties involved, I’m not going to go into detail about the figures. But you have to trust myself and the board that materially this was not a good deal for the European Tour and its members … it was nowhere near the figures being bandied about in the media and in the players lounge over the past couple of months.”
● 3. Don’t expect any additional cosanctioned events any time soon.
Could the Irish Open become a future co-sanctioned tournament? Monahan and Pelley held their cards close to the vest on this subject.
“At this point,” Monahan said, “our focus is going to be on delivering the best possible competitive platform in that January through August timeframe through the completion of our Tour Championship, those two elements in our fall, the International Series and the competition for positioning and for retention of membership … long way of saying we don’t have any plans right now to add co-sanctioned events (to the three previously announced – Genesis Scottish Open, Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship).”
● 4. Pelley wouldn’t be opposed to working with LIV Golf under the right circumstances.
Pelley noted that he and the DP World Tour are responsible for bringing Golf Saudi into the game in 2019.
“Shortly thereafter we had conversations about how they could get involved in other aspects of our game and including the Challenge Tour, which is something they turned down,” Pelley said. “It leaves me perplexed when they talk about their aspiration to grow the game, yet nobody really can explain to me how that works. And I would have thought that a Challenge Tour and our Challenge Tour feeder tour into the DP World Tour would have been a perfect avenue.
“Unfortunately, the Golf Saudi has elected to play outside the ecosystem or outside the ecosystem.”
● 5. A merger could still be coming in the future.
There seems to be a sense of inevitability that men’s professional golf should exist under one umbrella. So, why didn’t the PGA Tour buy all of the DP World Tour today? Monahan stepped up to answer that question.
“I think when you go back to the origin of or the formation of our strategic alliance I think what we’re talking about today really is just a natural extension of that alliance. We’re on a journey here together as two organizations,” Monahan said. “When you look at the commercial impact, the scheduling impact ... this was the right step at the right time, allows us to respond to the changes that we’re making on the PGA Tour to the better, to the benefit of the DP World Tour, and allows us, as we’re building trust and building our path forward here with both membership organizations to continue to deliver more value.” Here was a telling comment: “That day may come in the future,” Monahan said.