DP World official calls for LIV Golf “truce”

A senior figure from DP World has called for a “truce” between the DP World Tour and LIV Golf.

Danny van Otterdijk, the Chief Communications Officer for the Dubai-based strategics firm that sponsors the former European Tour, believes a peaceful resolution to the hostility that has split men’s professional golf in two is best for all parties. 

Speaking to Golf Digest Middle East, he said: “Our friends at LIV Golf, we have great contact with them as the game grows in the region.

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“All that needs to get sorted out in the coming months and we will leave that to the governing bodies to sort it out.

“But we have a great relationship with our friends at LIV Golf and we are continually talking with them. We do think it will be sorted out.”

DP World was announced as the title sponsor of the re-branded European Tour since November 2021, shortly before the launch of the LIV Golf League early in 2022.

Last week, 13 LIV Golf appellants took their complaint against the DP World Tour, and sanctions it has attempted to impose upon them, to an arbitration panel in the UK. The outcome of the five-day hearing is not expected to made official for several weeks.

However, van Otterdijk, believes that there is a way for all tours to co-exist.

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“I personally think that what LIV Golf has done is bring the game of golf back to the conversation,” he said. “More people are now asking: ‘What is golf all about?’ ‘What is this new different tour platform going to do?’

“Some like it, some do not, and that is fine, but at least it has people talking about golf again.

“We think that, like the game of cricket [incorporating the IPL and world leagues] and what other sporting bodies have done, sensibility will prevail and people will talk, and integrating the schedules will prevail. That is only good for the game of golf.”