DP World Tour allowing members to play LIV Golf without sanction can supercharge world golf
- SHANK
- Feb 1
- 6 min read
You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. The spirt of collaboration between employees and employer, or in this case, the DP World Tour and its members. On Saturday evening it emerged that the DP World Tour were preparing to announce that it will drop fines for members playing on the LIV Golf League for this season.
All existing fines up until the end of 2025 will need to be settled, but releases will be granted to all members who apply for competing LIV Golf League events in 2026. In addition, the DP World Tour has the right to nominate events players must commit to. (@flushingitgolf on X, and Bob Harig, Sports Illustrated).
It has since been suggested that this will pave the way for LIV Golf to be afforded OWGR points, and see the DP World Tour and LIV Golf move closer together, with the PGA TOUR becoming more American-centric and slimline with a shorter schedule from 2027.
The decision has yet to be confirmed by the DP World Tour, and LIV Golf have not commented. A decision on Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton's appeals against the fines has yet to be delivered, putting their place on the 2027 European Ryder Cup team in jeopardy.
This can change the game for LIV Golf and the DP World Tour
The European Tour Group has strategic alliances with the Sunshine Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, Japan Golf Tour, KPGA, China Golf Association and Professional Golf Tour of India which includes the co-sanctioning of the following events in 2026:
Investec South African Open Championship (DP World Tour)
Joburg Open (DP World Tour)
AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (DP World Tour)
Nedbank Golf Challenge (DP World Tour)
Alfred Dunhill Championship (DP World Tour)
SDC Open (Hotel Planner Tour)
CIRCA Cape Town Open (Hotel Planner Tour)
NTT Data Pro-am (Hotel Planner Tour)
Jonsson Workwear Durban Open (Hotel Planner Tour)
Volvo China Open (DP World Tour)
Hainan Classic (DP World Tour)
Hainan Open (Hotel Planner Tour)
Hangzhou Open (Hotel Planner Tour)
Hero Indian Open (DP World Tour)
DP World India Championship (DP World Tour)
Indorama Ventures Open Golf Championship (Hotel Planner Tour)
PGTI Open (Hotel Planner Tour)
BMW Australian PGA Championship (DP World Tour)
Crown Australian Open (DP World Tour)
Genesis Championship (DP World Tour)
The alliances also create pathways from the Sunshine Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, and other tours to the DP World Tour, and eventually on to the PGA TOUR with the top 10 non-exempt players on the Race to Dubai rankings earning a dual card with the PGA TOUR. Players from the Sunshine Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, KPGA, Japan Golf Tour and PGTI also receive access to selected events on the DP World Tour schedule including the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
2025 marked 30 years since the very first co-sanctioned tournament on the major tours, the Lexington South African PGA Championship, played at the Wanderers Golf Club near Johannesburg, and won by Ernie Els. Co-sanctioned events between the DP World Tour and other tours have helped to create global stars such as Els, Retief Goosen, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Adam Scott.
Whilst the decision to waive fines for players in the future who wish to play on LIV Golf stops well short of a formal alliance, what it does do is create an exciting opportunity for both the DP World Tour and the LIV Golf League. It is said that the DP World Tour will request players who seek releases to play on LIV Golf to play in certain events on the DP World Tour, this clearly paves the way for a syndication of the schedules, perhaps as early as 2027.
With the PGA TOUR indicating it will shorten its schedule in 2027 and LIV Golf not kicking off until the first week of February it creates an opportunity for the DP World Tour elevate its Middle East Swing, back to where it was a decade ago. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar used to each attract some of the strongest fields outside of America every season, and in 2027 the Tour could schedule the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship and the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in a three-week period leading into LIV Golf Riyadh, and the first event of the PGA TOUR season.
These events could be a kind of unofficial pre-season for LIV and the PGA TOUR, but premier events for the DP World Tour. Enabling more of the world's best to congregate in the Middle East Swing would generate much higher OWGR points and improve the rankings of DP World Tour members, as well as player competing in the LIV Golf League. It would also make it much more attractive to the PGA TOUR members to travel to the Middle East before their tour tees off in February.
LIV Golf's 2026 schedule sees them have off weeks in the two weeks preceding The Open, which, with some collaboration from 2027, could see the DP World Tour create a Links Swing heading into The Open at the Home of Golf, St Andrews. 2026 sees the PGA TOUR play a Signature event the week following the US Open (Travelers Championship), LIV Golf plays in New Orleans, and the DP World Tour plays in Italy (Open D'Italia). This is likely to change in 2027, with the new framework for the PGA TOUR allowing for an off week following each Major Championship.
If the DP World Tour and LIV Golf syndicated their schedules there is an opportunity for a Links Swing to be created across Europe which could become as strong as the Middle East Swing. The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark each have tremendous Links Courses, and there are strong seaside courses in Spain, Portugal and France too. The European Open could be relaunched as the opening event of the DP World Tour's Links Swing, and members of LIV Golf which are eligible could play without restriction, as well as members of the PGA TOUR.
It would seem unlikely that the PGA TOUR's new framework would place a Signature event behind the Genesis Scottish Open and leading into The Open, so the DP World Tour could relaunch the English Open as a National Open which tours Links Courses across the country. Prince's, Royal Cinque Ports, Royal St George's, Trevose, St Enodoc, Saunton, West Lancashire, Hillside, and Royal Lytham and St Anne's could form the basis for a rota of English Open courses. The English Open could again allow members of LIV Golf which are eligible to play without restriction, and members of the PGA TOUR who would be in the UK ahead of the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open.
The Genesis Scottish Open is a co-sanctioned PGA TOUR event so LIV Golf members would remain ineligible for it.
With the PGA TOUR and LIV Golf seasons ending in late August/early September, the DP World Tour has a fantastic opportunity to attract the best golfers in the world to strengthen fields in Switzerland, Ireland, Wentworth, the Belfry, the Dunhill Links, Open de France, Spain, India, Korea, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Australia and South Africa.
For LIV Golf this presents a possible opportunity to establish pathways not just to the League, but to specific teams. The DP World Tour's alliance with the Sunshine Tour, and the decision not to fine players for playing with releases on LIV Golf could enable the Southern Guards GC to sign young South African talent to replace the likes of Branden Grace or any other team member who faces relegation in 2027.
The same can be said for the Korean Golf Club, with the DP World Tour's alliance with the KPGA, and for the Fireballs GC recruiting Spanish golfers, and Majesticks GC recruiting English golfers. Potentially LIV Golf could establish an Indian Franchise, captained by Anirban Lahiri, and recruit Indian golfers who play on the DP World Tour, PGTI and Asian Tour.
Collaboration was always going to be the way forward, and whilst the PGA TOUR are still hostile and introverted, it seems that slowly but surely the DP World Tour is realising the benefits to its Tour and the sport are huge if they soften their attitude towards players who choose to play on LIV Golf. For now this cannot be a formal alliance, as the DP World Tour has its strategic alliance with the PGA TOUR, and the PGA TOUR owns 40% of European Tour Productions. But the DP World Tour can be a bridge between the PGA TOUR and LIV Golf, and all the tours which predominantly play outside the USA can mutually benefit.
So, if I was Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton I would just suck it up and pay the fines, because in the long-term it will benefit them and benefit the league they play on, as well as the sport more generally. For goodness sake, they can afford it, but global golf and the Ryder Cup perhaps cannot if they refuse to pay.
SHANK, by Matt Hooper
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