We all know that social media isn’t the place to go for nuanced, well-thought and well-argued opinion, so it should’ve come as little surprise that the DP World Tour’s announcement of the changes to the European Ryder Cup qualification process would be met with doomsday prophecies.
Yes, putting the DP World Tour’s own Rolex Series events on a lower pedestal to the PGA Tour’s Signature Events, The Players Championship and FedEx Cup playoff events, and on an equal footing to the likes of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, 3M Open and John Deere Classic is a blatant admission that it’s a second-tier tour. But it’s always been a second-tier tour.
Even in the halcyon days of Seve, Faldo, Langer and co., there were a few ultra-high achievers but the majority of the game’s top players plied their trade on the PGA Tour. It was a case of simple economics, money spoke volumes, and you wouldn’t expect it any other way. If the roles were reversed, and prize funds were roughly double on the European Tour, you’d have seen a damn sight more Americans coming over to compete on the European Tour, and the Australians, South Africans, Koreans, and all those who got their starts on the European circuit before graduating to the States would never have looked west.
At present, the Ryder Cup is the only thing really keeping the DP World Tour afloat in the competitive stakes. Without the likes of McIlroy, Fleetwood, Hovland and others needing a minimum number of DPWT starts to be deemed eligible for selection, they’d likely return to play in their home opens and that’s about it.
Under the Strategic Alliance with the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour will survive, but survival is pretty much the maximum achievable. And that’s all well and good if it’s the extent of your ambition, but I’d like to think there is still a desire to reach for the stars, to become the premier golfing tour on the planet, and one that every up-and-coming golfer aspires to join.
But everything comes at a price, and in this instance, that price would be abandoning the safe if stifling nest of the PGA Tour and striking a deal with the enemy. The enemy you courted, the enemy you previously dealt with, and only decided they were the enemy once they started harbouring notions of extending their ambitions beyond hosting one annual event.
I’m talking, of course, about Saudi Arabia and more specifically, the Saudi Public Investment Fund. There’s no doubt that LIV’s stock is rising, but I believe the format will continue to enforce a low ceiling as long as it remains 54 holes, 52-man fields, and a shotgun start.
An alliance or merger between the European Tour and the PIF that brings the DP World Tour and LIV together would put the former in a position to compete financially and would give legitimacy, world rankings points and established pathways into the major championships for the latter, and neither would be forced to bow down to the PGA Tour in the process.
It’s not an ideal scenario, of course, and the passage of three years hasn’t removed the ethical concerns that existed when the opportunity first arose, but the PGA Tour have already opened the door and brought the PIF to the table and it’s become increasingly clear – as if it wasn’t already – that the PGA Tour’s interest in the DP World Tour is a mixture of channeling the best players from the European circuit onto their own, and in warding off other suitors.
The continued rise of US Collegiate golf means that the top young European talent – the likes of Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg in recent years – have only become DP World Tour members after already established themselves on the PGA Tour and with Ryder Cup ambition in mind.
And now, barring Tiger Woods-like level of dominance in the non-Rolex Series or ‘Back 9’ DP World Tour events, it’s highly unlikely that any of the 2025 European Ryder Cup competitors will come from the pool that could be deemed ‘Tour regulars’. And you can’t blame Luke Donald for that. His first duty is to have the best possible team assembled when they roll into New York net September, but the Ryder Cup comes once every two years and, excluding majors, there are approximately 80 events in between.
The Ryder Cup is the steak and lobster, but those other 80 events are the bread and butter. And it’s time to get some jam, dips and olive oil for them.