Report: Keith Pelley ‘set to leave’ DP World Tour

Rumours are swirling that Keith Pelley is leaving his post as the chief executive of the DP World Tour to return to his native Canada. 

Canadian sports outlet TSN is reporting that the 60-year-old has agreed a deal to become the president and chief executive of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), the parent company of multiple Toronto sports franchises.

They include the Toronto Maples Leafs ice hockey team, NBA outfit the Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC of the MLS, and Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

TSN is reporting that the news could be made official as soon as Thursday.

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bunkered.co.uk has reached out to the DP World Tour for comment.

News of Pelley’s anticipated departure comes within hours of another of golf’s major administrators, Martin Slumbers, announcing his intention to stand down as R&A chief executive by the end of the year.

Keith Pelley has been the chief executive of the DP World Tour since 2015. He joined from Rogers Media in Canada, where he was president, and has been praised for his high-energy, innovative leadership.

The Shot Clock Masters and GolfSixes are just some of the new ideas he has pioneered during his eight years at the helm.

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After steering the tour through the COVID-19 pandemic, he brokered a deal ahed of the 2022 season with DP World, a Dubai-based logistics company, which saw it become the title sponsor of the then European Tour.

More recently, however, he has had to negotiate the existential threat posed by the emergence of the lucrative LIV Golf League, a crisis that has seen him go toe-to-toe with some of the game’s most high-profile players in front of an arbitration panel (a fight that Pelley and the tour won last April).

The timing of his reported departure is sure to raise eyebrows, coming at a critical time in the ‘framework agreement’ negotiations intended to merge the commercial operations of the DP World Tour with its close ally the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

The 2024 DP World Tour season resumes on Thursday with the Dubai Invitational.

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