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What price a strategic alliance? The golf world might just be about to find out as the PGA Tour considers its partnership with the DP World Tour.
A little-known element of the updated deal between the PGA and DP World Tours from 2022 – at a time when LIV disruption was in full flow – relates to a break clause. While the contract in theory runs until 2035, the strategic alliance can end in 2027. There is no present, strong sense of the agreement being curtailed but it is clear the PGA Tour wants at least a renegotiation before taking up their extension option.
Each year, the PGA Tour underpins prize funds on the DP World, formerly European, Tour. The fee is listed in the European Tour Group’s accounts as an “annual investment payment”. In 2024, it rose by almost 10%, to £21.5m. The likelihood is the figure increased again in 2025.
The mistake would be to regard this as chump change for the PGA Tour; the subsidy is turning heads within an organisation that now has private equity and the Strategic Sports Group to answer to. Every line on the profit and loss sheet is scrutinised. Candidly, there is serious background discussion over whether propping up purses in Europe makes the commercial or sporting sense it did when LIV carried heavy intent.
The PGA Tour declined to comment on its position. A source familiar with the situation said: “The PGA Tour initiated discussions with the DP World Tour on 26 January to revise and extend the longstanding partnership. Much has changed since these agreements were first negotiated, including new leadership at the PGA Tour, new investment partners and a new player equity programme that provides members with a major stake and meaningful voice in how the tour is run.” The key term here is “revise”.
Elite golf in its present form looks unsustainable. Players have never had it so good. Some in positions of power within the PGA Tour believe the DP World Tour pays out far too much prize money, which in turn has ramifications on this side of the Atlantic. The point is not an unreasonable one, even if the DP World Tour can argue in response that retaining players as LIV hovers comes at cost. The DP World Tour’s total prize fund in 2026 is a record $157.5m (£117.35m), up from $153m a year earlier.
The Tour has typically benefited hugely from home Ryder Cup stagings yet increased investment and costs associated with that have diminished the bounty. The terms of Sky Sports’ most recent deal for European golf are unknown but, with no competition to the broadcaster, a bidding war has never boosted rights revenues. Europe has lost a batch of blue-chip sponsors, including to LIV. Ten players can progress from the DP World Tour to standing on the PGA Tour every year, which has always felt a strange acceptance of talent drain.
The PGA Tour is emboldened. LIV is no longer perceived as a threat. The return of Brooks Koepka and, soon, Patrick Reed from the Saudi Arabian-backed circuit has fuelled the sense of momentum shift. Brian Rolapp, the PGA Tour’s chief executive, hopes to oversee a significant change to the schedule, which will essentially streamline the tournament scene. The PGA Tour’s business model, regarded as outdated, will soon be overhauled. Rolapp’s challenge is to convince the rank and file of the value in that.
The PGA Tour’s pushing of the Players Championship as a major demonstrates how confidence has replaced nervousness inside a body that was rocked by LIV’s emergence. Rolapp’s media conference on Wednesday will take place in front of hundreds of invited guests at the PGA Tour’s global home rather than in a media centre. This feels self-aggrandising but is an indicator of present assuredness.
Europe and the strategic alliance may be a theme as Rolapp addresses his audience. It certainly should be. It is hardly a significant leap to point out that failure to reach compromise on precisely how the underpin should look would bring Saudi Arabia firmly back into the equation. Rolapp and the PGA Tour will know this, hence their call on the post-2027 status is a fascinating one.
LIV and its backers will be watching this scenario with great interest. They need a palatable exit route from a tour that commands no broader interest and swallows dollars. Should the PGA and DP World Tours fail to find a mutually acceptable path forward, Saudi Arabia and Europe could combine to implement a more global institution. European golf and the Saudis have been bedfellows before. A possibility worth risking for the PGA Tour? Perhaps, even if its clear preference is to maintain a relationship with Europe.
“I always hope that the DP World Tour will be a viable, strong tour,” said Justin Rose. “It has got great history. The PGA Tour obviously sort of props up the European Tour right now.” Indeed it does. And he who pays the piper calls the tune.
