Breakfast Ball #47: The Future of the DP World Tour

In This Week’s Newsletter:

LIV Golf deal with the DP World Tour Would Cement its Place in the Golfing Calendar

Well, we went one week without any news of mergers and acquisitions in golf.

Bloomberg has reported that LIV Golf is in talks with the DP World Tour (DPWT) to sculpt a deal that may bring an end to the divide in the golfing world. If the negotiations are successful, LIV would merge with the DPWT and allow players to play across both tours on a regular basis. It would also likely give LIV players a pathway to earning Official World Ranking points, granting more opportunities to qualify for majors.

The deal would bring a substantial financial boost to the DPWT, which already has a partnership with the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, the PGA Tour is also in discussions with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) regarding a $1.5 billion investment in PGA Tour Enterprises. Yes, that same merger “announced” back in June 2023, with an initial December 2023 deadline, remains unresolved—and there’s no clear resolution in sight.

Feeling confused? You’re not alone. The average golf fan—someone who tunes into the majors and maybe a handful of other events each year—simply wants to see the world’s best golfers competing against each other more frequently. Yet, over the past five years, the spotlight has shifted elsewhere. The focus has been on securing greater investment, driven largely by the pursuit of larger prize pools.

The Saudi PIF, which oversees assets worth $925 billion (€880 billion), possesses immense financial resources to invest in sports—a strategy aimed at reshaping the country’s tarnished international image. The top 26 LIV players all earned more than $4M in 2024. There are 54 players in each tournament, meaning if you are just above average and play all 14 events, you can earn at least $4M. You can’t really blame players that want to compete in easier tournaments for that level of money.

Consider Carlos Ortiz as an example. Over eight years, he moved between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour, competing in 161 top-level events and earning $7.8 million. This year alone on LIV, in just 14 events, Ortiz earned $7.5 million. While it’s clear that Ortiz has elevated his game since joining LIV in 2023, it’s worth noting that in his final year on the PGA Tour, he only managed to record five top-20 finishes in 26 starts.

While LIV Golf has struggled commercially so far, it holds long-term potential to compete as the premier global golf tour. That said, it’s also likely that it has already accomplished the primary objectives of the Saudi PIF: increasing the financial stakes in professional golf and pressuring major, established tours to collaborate with them in order to remain competitive.

The DP World Tour has no other option. Without the top players, sponsors lose interest, prize funds decline, and a vicious cycle begins to a point where it is simply not viable to operate.

The tour, however, finds itself with a unique opportunity. While PGA Tour viewership dropped by 19% in 2024, the DP World Tour’s “Back Nine” events—held after the conclusion of the main PGA Tour season—saw a 13% increase in viewership. With the addition of LIV’s marquee players, the DPWT has the potential to capture significant attention and reestablish itself as a premier destination for top European talent, rather than merely being seen as the PGA Tour’s lesser counterpart.

However, if they need the Saudis to do all of this, is it really worth it?

Other News and Results

• 💵 Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s Commissioner, earned $23M in 2023. Yes, twenty three MILLION US dollars

  • For comparison: the CEO of the Premier League, which brings in more than double the revenue of the PGA Tour, earned $2.4M in 2023. It is absolute and utter insanity

• 🏆️ World number 954 golfer Ryggs Johnston won on his second DP World Tour start at the Australian Open

  • The American was playing on the third-tier PGA Tour Americas in 2024 after graduating from Arizona State in May and got through three stages of DP World Tour Q-School to get his card

  • The win also gives the Montana native a place in the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush

• 🇪🇺 A 90-minute film on the inside story of the 2023 European Ryder Cup team will be released on YouTube on Tuesday

  • You can see a preview of the film here

Coming up this week on Tour

• The Hero World Challenge is a 20-man tournament hosted by Tiger Woods in the Bahamas 🌴 

  • Many top Europeans will be in the field including Ludvig Åberg, Aaron Rai, Bob MacIntyre, and Matthieu Pavon

• The Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa on the DP World tour has a strong field including Will Zalatoris, Thomas Detry, Nicolai Højgaard, Corey Conners, and 2023 champion Max Homa

If you have any feedback for the newsletter or would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! Email [email protected] or message us on Twitter/X at @BlueHorizonGolf. Thank you for reading!