Rory McIlroy weighs in on DP World Tour losing players to PGA Tour

Rory McIlroy has defended the initiative that will see some of the DP World Tour’s finest talent offloaded to the PGA Tour.

The leading ten players in the Race to Dubai standings, who are not already exempt, will earn PGA Tour cards for 2024 after this weekend’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship finale.

Ryan Fox, Adrian Meronk and Robert MacIntyre are among those in line to secure a potentially career-changing ticket to America, but the “Ten Cards” initiative announced last year as part of the strategic alliance between the two circuits has come under some fierce criticism.

Many fans have pointed to the move as the latest evidence that the European circuit is openly accepting its fate as a feeder circuit to the most prestigious tour. And DP World Tour pro Eddie Pepperell said the pathway could prove a “disaster” for his circuit.

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“I can’t think of any good business that tries to not retain its ‘clients’,”the Englishman said on his Chipping Forecast podcast. “Just give the best ones away. That makes no sense to me.”

But speaking at Jumeirah Golf Estates as he prepares to lift his fifth Race to Dubai title this weekend, McIlroy backed the initiative as a huge opportunity for ambitious DP World Tour stars.

“It’s a formalising of the pathway that’s always sort of been there,” he explained. “I got into the top 50 in the world at the end of 2008, and in 2009, I was going to start in the Middle East and then I was going to the States and play the Match Play, the Honda, the whatever else. It’s always been there. It’s just a bit more official.

“But at the same time, you know, the reason that the European Tour started with as to give professional golfers opportunities to play golf tournaments and earn a living.

“So if you look at what the mission statement is for the DP World Tour, it’s to give professional golfers opportunities to play their sport, make a living, and there’s no better place to have opportunity and to make a living than what’s going on on the PGA Tour.

“I don’t see that side of the argument at all. For golfers playing on The European Tour, I think it’s an amazing thing that’s happened and as I said, is formalises a pathway to get to the very top level of professional golf.”

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McIlroy added that he says a move from Europe to the PGA Tour as an “opportunity”, not a sacrifice, as players like his Ryder Cup teammate MacIntyre prepare for the possible big move Stateside in 2024.

The Race to Dubai reached somewhat of an anti-climax last week when it was confirmed that McIlroy could not be caught in his pursuit of a second successive European order of merit crown this weekend.

However, this week will be a victory lap the Northern Irishman certainly isn’t taking for granted.

“It’s really nice to have my name on the Harry Vardon Trophy for the fifth time and just be one behind Seve and still a few behind Monty,” McIlroy said.

“You’re talking about the greats of the European game, and to be up alongside them is really, if someone had told 18-year-old Rory when I was making my professional debut in 2007 that I would have won five Order of Merits up to this point, I wouldn’t have believed them.”

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.