Could LIV merge with the DP World Tour? This pro hopes so

The idea has long been mooted within the industry and is now gathering pace.

Could the Saudi Arabian backers of LIV Golf really ditch their proposed peace deal with the PGA Tour and create a lucrative new worldwide circuit with the DP World Tour instead?

While PGA Tour sources insist a deal is progressing with Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to unite the elite men’s game, many have grown frustrated by the glacial speed of the negotiations and have suggested this alternative.

It would mean the DP World Tour becoming a rival again to the PGA Tour and strengthening its relationship with LIV’s paymasters.

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Adrian Meronk, who left the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf this season, would certainly be on board.

“I would love to see some sort of cooperation between the tours,” Meronk told Golf Digest’s John Huggan ahead of his return to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

“All the fines and not having proper World Rankings makes no sense. I don’t even look at the rankings anymore. But, on the other hand, it wouldn’t be the worst thing if the PGA Tour went its own way and everyone else got together and created a worldwide tour everywhere except the United States.

“I like that idea. It would be awesome. The Asian Tour (funded by the PIF) is flourishing right now, so maybe that will happen.”

Laurie Canter, a former LIV regular now back playing full-time on the DP World Tour, is convinced that these two domains are fighting for the same purpose.

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“LIV and the DP World Tour are the genuine worldwide tours now,” the Englishman said in an interview with bunkered.co.uk.

“With LIV and the DP World Tour, it feels like there should be a natural synergy,” Canter says. “There might be a different guise in the tours but, fundamentally, the markets they’re going after are similar. Some of the things LIV requires and needs, the European Tour has in spades.

“LIV has access to players and a world-class investor behind them. If you got those two things together, it would be exciting.”

Canter, however also suggested it would be foolish to ignore a behemoth that is the PGA Tour and ignore the professional game’s biggest market.

“Without some PGA Tour collaboration or understanding… I don’t know what solves – those two entities trying to win on their own,” Canter admitted. “I would be in the camp that all the tours need to work together.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 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.