It's Time to End the Strategic Alliance.

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To catch everybody up, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour formed a “strategic alliance”, a formal partnership between the two tours focused on three main aspects:

1) Investment and Ownership. As part of the alliance the PGA Tour took ownership in the DP World Tour’s broadcast arm, European Tour Productions. An additional part of this aspect has the PGA Tour guaranteeing purses for DP World Tour events. That is, if the DP World Tour can’t afford to at the very least match last year’s purses, the PGA Tour will pony up the cash.

2) Global Scheduling. The PGA Tour and DP World Tour would work together to create a mutually beneficial schedule and minimize conflicts between the two tours. Additionally, they would co-sanction events. This meant the PGA Tour’s top stars would play in more DP World Tour events, such as the Genesis Scottish Open.

3) Enhanced Player Pathways. This part of the strategic alliance is the most one-sided of the three. The tours established a pathway for the top DP World Tour players to earn their playing rights on the PGA Tour. Each season the top 10 DP World Tour players not otherwise exempt are awarded PGA Tour cards.

The Strategic Alliance was initially established in November of 2020 where the PGA Tour acquired a 15% stake in European Tour Enterprises. The partnership was originally aimed at strengthening their business operations and increasing the collective value of media rights for all players. In 2022, this partnership was strengthened as a response to the threat of LIV Golf. This increased partnership came with the co-sanctioning of two PGA Tour events, the Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship, an increased ownership stake in European Tour Productions for the PGA Tour, and the formalization of a pathway for top DP World Tour players to earn PGA Tour cards.

While this strategic partnership is sold to fans as the creation of a unified, global golfing landscape, the results have been one-sided.

The Talent on the DP World Tour has always been the primary issue affecting the competitiveness of the tour. Sponsors and fans could always watch objectively better talent play on the PGA Tour. For decades top players have left for the PGA Tour in search of higher purses, appearance fees, and better competition. The DP World Tour still attracts some of the top talent back for their year-end events, but even their most historic events have been negatively affected by this partnership.

The severity of the situation for the DP World Tour cannot be overstated. At the beginning of 2019 the DP World Tour accounted for 20% of the worlds top 100 players. As things stand currently, that has decreased to 5%, and they’re just 6 weeks away from sending their 10 best to the PGA Tour.

You do the math. It’s not pretty. Extrapolate this over the next few years and there’s going to be nothing left.

The solution is simple.

Step 1. Ditch the not so strategic alliance and call the PGA Tour’s bluff.

The DP World Tour needs to back out of the strategic alliance, exercise whatever exit clauses are built into the agreement, and run for the hills. They simply cannot afford to continue sending their top talent to the PGA Tour year after year. It doesn’t matter how much they collaborate on their schedules, because at some point having Rory McIlroy show up for a few events each year just won’t be enough. If they have to buy back the PGA Tour’s stake in European Tour Productions, do it. Get out of it. The landscape has changed drastically since the formation of the DP World Tour & PGA Tour strategic alliance, and it’s no longer beneficial to them. The PGA Tour will operate as a standalone product. Jay Monahan might respond by threatening to ban PGA Tour players from playing in DP World Tour events if the alliance was broken, but he wouldn’t follow through.

Step 2.

The DP World Tour, The Asian Tour, and LIV Golf can form a global golf alliance, utilize the International Series and LIV Golf to strengthen the DP World Tour’s most historic events, provide pathways for their players to play in LIV events, and similar pathways for LIV players to play on the DP World Tour.

A recent report from Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig indicates that LIV Golf offered to pay off outstanding fines for LIV Golf players, develop a pathway for DP World Tour players to play in International Series Events, and invest cash in the DP World Tour to fund purses.

This means that a partnership between LIV Golf, DPWT, and the Asian Tour would provide all of the benefits of the current strategic alliance, and more. LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund will further investment in the DP World Tour to offer the same purse guarantee the PGA Tour does currently, offer additional playing opportunities for their players, but without slowly draining the talent out of the DP World Tour.

Step 3.

Grow the game globally.

By the end of the season, Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Louis Oosthuizen, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, Talor Gooch, Cameron Smith, Paul Casey, Thomas Pieters, Marc Leishman, and Dean Burmester will have all played events on the DP World Tour. To do this, the majority of them had to pay outstanding fines in the range of $75,000 per LIV event that they have played.

If a DPWT/LIV/Asian Tour alliance was formed, it would truly be a WIN-WIN-WIN situation. The DP World Tour would gain access to an elite player base looking to earn OWGR points, LIV Golf players would be able to return to some of the worlds most historic events (think Sergio at the Spanish Open, Pieters at the Soudal Open, Tyrrell at the British Masters), and the Asian Tour’s top events would get the DP World Tour’s talent pool, further increasing their exposure and level of competition.

The International Series and DP World Tour rankings could then be used as a pathway for top players to earn spots in individual LIV events, or earn full playing rights on LIV Golf.

Players relegated out of LIV Golf could leave with status on the DP World Tour, access to International Series events, and more. This “strategic alliance” would be more than a prohibit the growth of LIV Golf at the expense of the DP World Tour, it would be a true partnership working towards providing value for sponsors, increased playing opportunity for players, and growing the game on a global scale.

It just feels so easy. 

The LIV Golf, DP World Tour, and International Series schedules integrate so flawlessly. The DP World Tour is broken up into 6 different segments called “swings”. The International Series that would be played outside of the fall season could provide endcaps to some of the swings.

For example: The “International Swing” could open with the International Series Oman and end with the International Series Macau. Between the two would be the 8 events scheduled for that swing on the DP World Tour. Same idea for the European Swing, it could start with the International Series Morocco event and conclude with the International Series England.

The International Series Events would become co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and DP World Tour and before each LIV Golf event a team of players comprised of players leading the International Series Order of Merit and the leading players from the previous swing on the DP World Tour.

With very little adjustments made to this year’s schedule, here’s how they could integrate.

The DP World Tour needs to preserve their talent pool for the sake of commercial viability, provide playing opportunities, and guarantee purses until things improve.

LIV Golf has some of the world’s top talent that are seeking OWGR points, want to play in some of the most historic events on the DP World Tour, and want to develop a pathway to get the world’s best talent into LIV Golf.

The Asian Tour wants to increase their exposure, improve their level of competition, and provide pathways for their players to play on the game’s largest stages.

A DP World Tour, LIV Golf, and Asian Tour partnership accomplishes all three of these things. But first, the DP World Tour needs to ditch the “strategic alliance”.