Major tour sponsor offers bold merger prediction

A merger to bring the DP World Tour, PGA Tour and LIV Golf together could be just around the corner.

It would be welcomed by players, who are growing increasingly frustrated by ongoing negotiations to heal the men’s professional game.

At the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship earlier this month, Matt Fitzpatrick said he is “past the point of caring.”

But there is growing optimism that a deal could be reached within the next six months, according to Daniel Van Otterdijk, Group Chief Communications Officer at DP World.

While the tour sponsor has no direct role in the negotiations, Van Otterdijk is confident the game is well placed to mend burnt bridges.

“If you take the sort of media nonsense and the perceived politics out of it,” he told Gulf News, “[and] look at all three bodies… they are all entities that love golf – no doubt about it.

“His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan (Governor of PIF) is probably one of the biggest golf fans in the world.

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“So, everyone has the right intention. And when you have parties who disagree on the way forward, but everybody has the right intention, inevitably they come together and solve it.

“We’re confident that within the next six months they’ll come up with a structure that befits world golf in a much better way than what we currently have. But, of course, there are legacy issues to sort out.”

It’s unclear what the landscape would look like post-merger but, as previously suggested by Rory McIlroy, golf could draw comparisons to cricket.

“The way that it will go, as far as we can see, if you look at cricket as a model, cricketers these days can play in franchise leagues around the world – the IPL, the Big Bash – whatever it is,” said Van Otterdijk.

“They make a schedule based on their fitness and all the rest of it. They’re playing those tournaments and making their money.

“But they’re governed by a variety of different bodies – a very powerful body, the BCCI, the MCC, and then you’ve got Cricket Australia, Cricket New Zealand, and so on.

“They’ve all got their own governorships, if you like, and yet they work harmoniously together through the ICC in creating a schedule where, I wouldn’t say there’s none, but there’s limited overlap between all the franchise tournaments that get played.

“Golf will head the same way.”

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According to Van Otterdijk, that could unfold into a January to December schedule, where there are overlaps between the three golf circuits.

“A guy like Tommy (Fleetwood) can say, ‘Look, I want to keep my PGA Tour card, I want to play on the DP World Tour, but I’d like to play some LIV Golf events as well.’

“I think LIV Golf will combine their current team structure – that will probably drop, but they’ll still have team events.

“All of those events would see the players earn points that would secure them a spot at the season-ending events on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour – that still needs to be worked out.

“But I’m confident that there will be an end-to-end calendar with about 60 tournaments, with players looking to play around 25 in order to gather all the points they need if they play well.”

John Turnbull A graduate of the University of Stirling, John joined the bunkered team in 2023 as a Content Producer, with a responsibility for covering all breaking news, tour news, grassroots content and much more besides. A keen golfer, he plays the majority of his golf at Falkirk Tryst Golf Club. Top of his 'bucket list' is a round of Pebble Beach... ideally in the company of Gareth Bale.