Matt Fitzpatrick: DP World Tour was wrong to partner with PGA Tour

Matt Fitzpatrick has hit out at the DP World Tour’s decision to enter into partnership with the PGA Tour, insisting that it should never have happened.

The former US Open champion was speaking ahead of his defence of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where the participation of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan has renewed hopes that peace in golf is imminent.

Amid overtures from representatives of LIV Golf and Golf Saudi, the DP World Tour famously aligned with the PGA Tour in November 2020, entering into a ‘Strategic Alliance’ intended to “further enhance and connect the ecosystem of men’s professional golf”.

Had the decision been up to Fitzpatrick, however, the deal would never have been struck.

“I don’t think the Tour should have gone with the PGA Tour,” he told reporters in St Andrews.

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“I was pretty livid, to be honest, at Wentworth when I found out that there was a handful of PGA Tour players coming to play [the BMW PGA Championship], and at that point in time, not every person who kept their card last year got in the field, which I think is a disgrace. That’s the flagship event.

“There’s no invites given to European Tour players at THE PLAYERS Championship. So why are we dishing them out for Wentworth?

“I thought that was absolutely absurd that that even went through.”

Fitzpatrick’s own vision for the future of the game – cooked up with his caddie Billy Foster – more closely resembles the English football pyramid.

“You have basically like a Premier League, Championship and League One of golf,” he said. “You can bring everyone together and there’s more of a relegation promotion, there’s a few more stories there, you can work your way up. If everyone was together, I feel like that would be more beneficial, anyway.

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“I can’t sit here and say that I know the viewing figures for LIV or PGA TOUR are going up or down. I just don’t know. But as a big football fan, there’s got to be more stories in the relegation-promotion rather than what I think there is now.

“Obviously I know LIV is a closed shop and they have a team aspect. As a football fan, I love team stuff. The Ryder Cup is amazing. All that stuff is great.

“So, I’m not fully against the team aspect but if it’s a closed shop, there’s not too many story lines in there.

“But at the same time, the PGA Tour is becoming a little bit more like that. What formats are they going to do? Is there a 70-man field? I don’t know.

“There’s people that are smarter than me are involved. They know how to run businesses and know what to do and they are smart people. Smarter than me, and I would say smarter than the majority of the PGA TOUR players and golfers.”

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor