Pro raises hopes of surprise LIV Golf and DP World Tour deal

For many of the pros battling away on the DP World Tour, ignorance is bliss. 

While the elite men’s game plods along in a continued state of paralysis, players on Europe’s leading tour remain in the dark about where they stand ahead of an uncertain future.

Fatigue has long since set in over stalling negotiations between the European circuit, PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund, with reconciliation appearing no closer between the warring factions.

“We all hope there may be a different schedule in 2026,” Guy Kinnings, the chief executive of the DP World Tour, told BBC Sport in November, warning of the complications of merger talks.

But Kinnings – on site this week at the Turkish Airlines Open – has been unable to provide a meaningful update on the future outlook for some time as the status quo continues.

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Indeed, a committee meeting with players here at the magnificent Regnum Carya resort on Tuesday evening was understood to have yielded no fresh details on the sport’s stalemate.

“We’re not frustrated anymore because it’s been like this for such a long time,” one-time tour winner Romain Langasque tells bunkered.co.uk. “If something happens, I don’t think they’ll tell us. But as long as we have a nice setup, I don’t care, that’s most important for us.

“The problem, though, is if the PGA Tour is getting closer with the Saudis, then LIV has to be changed and the Saudis don’t want to change it.

“They have put so much money into the project and they are not going to stop.”

The impasse between the PGA Tour and the PIF – which entirely funds LIV Golf – has led to calls for the breakaway league’s Saudi bankrollers to instead pour their money solely into Wentworth HQ.

Crucially, the DP World Tour is currently tied to a ‘Strategic Alliance’ with the PGA Tour, a deal which runs nominally until 2035 and helped secure the tour’s future during a precarious period during Covid.

But some players have wondered whether the agreement with the US circuit could well be ditched entirely in the future favour of a separate, more lucrative deal with the Saudis.

“Some of the things LIV requires and needs, the European Tour has in spades,” Ryder Cup hopeful Laurie Canter told bunkered.co.uk recently. “LIV has access to players and a world-class investor behind them. If you got those two things together, it would be exciting.”

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The PIF has also further strengthened its ties to women’s golf with a revamped ‘PIF Global Series’ on the Ladies European Tour – a five-event schedule worth a combined purse of $13million.

So could the DP World Tour be the next target as the PGA Tour holds firm?

“We are in quite a good place,” Langasque explains, “because if we are still with the PGA Tour we have it like this, but if we don’t stay with them we might get something with the Saudis because they want to be part of something in golf. Actually, I don’t think we can be in a better place.

“At the end of the day, if we have guaranteed money – two, three, four million every event – that’s the most important thing for us.

“We don’t play just for money but that’s what makes you live. As long as we still have tournaments like this around the world with good prize money, I don’t care where the prize money is coming from.”

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.