PGA TOUR nearing Endgame of taking over the world of men's professional golf

We could look back years from now to say that Tuesday 23 June was the most important date in the history of modern men's professional golf, and the definitive point which spelled the beginning of the end of the DP World Tour and other independent tours around the world. New PGA Tour Commissioner and CEO Brian Rolapp announced that from 2028 the PGA TOUR would become a two-tier tour, with the Championship Series consisting of 23-24 events including the Four Majors, The Players Championship, postseason, Ryder Cup/Presidents Cup and 15 regular season Championship Series events each with a minimum prize fund of $20m. Each of the events outside the postseason and majors will have a field of 120 players, with a 36-hole cut.

Below the Championship Series will be the Challenger Series, consisting of up to 24 events featuring fields of 144 with a 36-hole cut, each will have a minimum prize fund of $4m. On the subject of pathways to the Challenger Series, the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Americas and PGA Tour University will remain, but it's the other elements of the announcement which look to indicate a future where the whole of men's professional golf is controlled by the PGA TOUR. I believe this because their rivals have never been as vulnerable or weak, and the changes will lead to them being even more vulnerable.

Tom from Flushing it Golf said: The PGA Tour’s Championship and Challenger Series set to be launched in 2028 will have a MASSIVE knock-on effect on the DP World Tour.

The new system means in total more than 270 of the best players from around the world (130 on the Championship Series and 144 on the Challenger Series) will be regularly playing across PGA Tour events between February to August. That’s double the current system and it is inevitable it will significantly weaken the strength of fields on the DP World Tour during the peak golf season.

The purses on the Championship Series will be at least $20 million and the Challenger Series will be at least $4 million, making them both more attractive than the current purses on the DP World Tour which average less than $3 million in this period.

It is yet to be decided what will happen to the 10 dual members who earn PGA Tour status via the Race to Dubai rankings, but I’m yet to speak to anyone who thinks all 10 will earn access to the Championship Series, if any of them do. This makes the PGA Tour’s Challenger Series, with 20 qualifying spots, a far more attractive place to play for career progression.

DP World Tour members have been expressing concerns to me about the tour becoming “tier 3” for a while, and their fears have been confirmed. The announcement of a “limited” series of elevated international events in the autumn will do little to ease worries, especially with the lack of details and the DP World Tour appearing to be an after thought as the “strategic alliance” is renegotiated in 2027.

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy where talent will continue to be drained from the majority of the DP World Tour’s schedule at the highest rate in history. The DP World Tour needs strong leadership now more than it ever has. Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) / X

Unfortunately Tom, the DP World Tour doesn't have strong leadership, and I would argue very strongly that it is the lack of leadership of the tour which has led to them being vulnerable to being swallowed up by the PGA TOUR. Keith Pelley had the opportunity in 2021 to meet with Yassir Al-Rumayyan and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and he declined the chance to do so, despite the European Tour staging the first three editions of the Saud International.

The European Tour has been reliant upon the PGA TOUR ever since, and in response to Tom's claim about the DP World Tour becoming tier 3, I think that is optimistic, and here is why. The PGA TOUR has long wanted to be the only show in town, running professional men's golf on their terms, and these latest announced changes will move the game nearer to their vision of it.

The Official World Golf Rankings are nearly irrelevant, and the changes will finish them off

The creation of the two-tier PGA TOUR will eventually result in almost all of the top 50 strongest fields in golf being at tournaments sanctioned by the PGA TOUR, and most of them inside the United States of America. The rankings of the Championship Series and Challenger Series will become the most important rankings in men's professional golf, and the entry point to the four Majors. The Official World Golf Rankings were launched 40 years ago, I would wager a pretty significant bet on the Official World Golf Rankings not being around by the time they reach their 50th birthday.

Other tours around the world, specifically the DP World Tour and Asian Tour, are weak and the PGA TOUR will consume them in years to come, as they have done with tours in Canada and South America

In 2013 the PGA TOUR took over the running of the Tour de Las Americas, a circuit of national and regional opens across South America including tournaments in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia

Tour de las Americas. This tour fed directly into the Korn Ferry Tour. At the same time, the PGA TOUR took control of the Canadian Tour, rebranding it as the PGA TOUR CANADA, and in 2024 the two tours merged to form the PGA TOUR AMERICAS, a third level tour under the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour.

The Covid19 Pandemic completely destroyed the momentum that the European Tour had heading into this decade, and it decimated the schedule, seeing the tour lose events and sponsors, and the tour had to look towards its traditional rival to save itself. In late 2020 the PGA TOUR and European Tour formed a Strategic Alliance which saw them co-sanction the Genesis Scottish Open, and two events opposite majors in the USA, along with the PGA TOUR helping to underwrite prize funds on the European Tour, PGA TOUR took a 40% equity stake in European Tour Productions, and a pathway for European Tour members to the PGA TOUR through the top 10 on the Race to Dubai. Jay Monahan also had a seat on the board of the European Tour Group.

In 2023 the European Tour signed a multi-year title sponsorship deal with DP World worth around $50m per year over a 10-year period.

The talent drain from the DP World Tour to the PGA TOUR has resulted in dramatic reduction in field strength for regular DP World Tour events, and outside the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the first 8 months of the year are particularly weak in terms of the players who play in DP World Tour events. Now these changes announced by the PGA TOUR are going to further marginalise events on the tour between February and August, and whilst the PGA TOUR have said they want to work with the DP World Tour on the new series of Elevated International Events, they have not yet confirmed details of the 10 cards awarded to DP World Tour players.

If the 10 cards only earn DP World Tour players a spot on the Challenger Series then it confirms that the DP World Tour is no longer a relevant tour in the game at the highest level, and for me it would be the prelude to the PGA TOUR seizing control of selected events around the world, and buying the European Tour Group, to create the PGA TOUR EUROPE.

After the Covid19 Pandemic the Asian Tour was at risk of complete collapse, that was until the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, through LIV Golf, stepped in and saved it, creating the 10-tournament International Series, and committing to a 10-year, $200m investment into the circuit which visits countries from the far east to the middle east. Now, with the seemingly inevitable collapse of LIV Golf, following the withdrawal of PIF funding, there has to be panic among the leadership of the Asian Tour, and its players.

Even with the LIV Golf support, the Asian Tour schedule does not have another tournament on it until September, leaving its membership without a place to play. No announcement has yet been made by either LIV Golf or the Asian Tour about the future of the investment into the tour, and the International Series beyond 2026.

The strength of the PGA Tour of Australasia and Sunshine Tour has since 1996 been largely reliant upon their co-sanctioning arrangements with the DP World Tour, which has helped to maintain their premier tournaments and create new stars on the global stage. Diminished tours in Europe and Asia is bad news for the tours of Africa and Australasia, because in 2026 the four tours co-sanction some 9 tournaments, including the South African Open, Australian Open and New Zealand Open.

The DP World Tour's latest broadcast rights deals with the Golf Channel in the USA and Sky Sports in the UK expire in 2029, and after the conclusion of that season I could definitely see seismic change in the world of men's professional golf, with the 'Elevated International events' becoming PGA TOUR properties, and the DP World Tour, Asian Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and the Sunshine Tour coming under the ownership of the PGA TOUR.

The PGA TOUR has offices in London and Tokyo, and with the DP World Tour having a base in Dubai, the Asian Tour being based in Singapore, the Sunshine Tour being based in Somerset West and the PGA Tour of Australasia being headquartered in Melbourne, the PGA TOUR has a ready-made global network of offices to operate the various levels of tours which would feed into a US-centric Championship and Challenger Series.

'Elevated International events' become PGA TOUR World Series, likely under the Rolex Series banner

The aim for this new series of elevated international events is to featured established, existing tournaments around the world, including some of the most prestigious national opens. This gives the PGA TOUR a ready made set of events in countries around the world, and an ability to generate revenue from key markets including potentially Australia, South Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. I could see the Rolex Series being played around the PGA TOUR's Championship Series season, and across its "off-season" with up to 9 events including Hero Dubai Desert Classic (January), Genesis Scottish Open (July), RBC Canadian Open, Amgen Irish Open (September), FedEx Open de France, Open de Espana (October), Hero Indian Open, Australian Open (November) and South African Open (December).

How the pyramid of golf could look by 2030

Some events of the former DP World Tour could find their way onto the Korn Ferry Tour schedule, joining their events in Chile, Colombia and Panama to create a summer swing of European events around The Open, the remaining events would be downgraded to $100,000 purse events on a new PGA TOUR EUROPE, which would sit alongside the PGA TOUR AMERICAS, PGA TOUR ASIA, PGA TOUR AFRICA and the PGA TOUR AUSTRALASIA, effectively as the fourth tier of world golf below the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR Challenger Series and PGA TOUR Championship Series.

PGA TOUR gains ownership of the world's biggest golf event, the Ryder Cup

Perhaps the most consequential element of the new model would be that the PGA TOUR would gain co-ownership of the world's biggest golf event - the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup generates an estimated $200m in revenue per event, and would further bolster the PGA TOUR's finances, as well as giving them even more control over men's professional golf.

The emergence of LIV Golf in 2022 changed the landscape of professional men's golf, and the PGA TOUR response to it is set to completely revolutionize the sport, resulting in all the best golfers and tournaments being played largely in the United States of America, with a select number of big events around the world, all under the control of the organisation based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

SHANK, by Matt Hooper

Matt Hooper is an Associate Member of the Sports Journalists' Association.