Published on scoregolf.com Rick Young
Greg Norman, LIV Golf Investments and the Saudi-backed Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) recently unveiled vision for a global rival to the PGA Tour took an uppercut square to the jaw Tuesday.
DP World, title sponsor of the European Tour’s season-ending DP World Championship in Dubai, stepped up with chequebook in hand and will assume title sponsorship of the European circuit going forward.
While financial details were not disclosed, the deal is surely lucrative. We know this because of these stated plans:
*$140 million will be poured into Euro Tour purses.
*The minimum purse at any event will climb to $2 million.
*Thirteen tournaments will guarantee at least $3 million.
*The flagship DP World Tour Championship’s purse will rise to the princely sum of $10 million.
*Accounting for golf’s majors and World Golf Championship events, the DP World Tour’s potential purse will climb to over $200 million. The European Tour’s previous pre-pandemic purse ceiling in 2019 was $130 million.
The $200 million being anted up by the PIF to prop up the Asian Tour over 10 years, while impressive, seems like pocket change compared to the annual investment being made by DP World.
Forty-seven events now comprise a tour that will visit as many as 27 countries from November 2021 through November 2022. Included are new events in the UAE, South Africa, Japan and Belgium along with a now five-event Rolex Series to close out the season.
That’s not all.
As previously announced, the DP World Tour will team up with the PGA Tour for a trio of co-sanctioned events: the Genesis Scottish Open; Barbasol Championship; and Barracuda Championship. It’s the first significant initiative between the PGA Tour and European Tour since the two sides formed a strategic alliance a year ago.
The European Challenge Tour stands to benefit as well. DP World plans to prop up the Euro-based development circuit, although no dollar amount or purse specifics were announced. One item that was announced was the John Jacobs Bursary. It has been formed as a means to support the Challenge Tour’s top five players at the conclusion of the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final. Players will receive travel and expense support for the following season on the DP World Tour.
“The entire ecosystem of our Tour will be strengthened because of this hugely significant deal, and that was essential to us and to DP World, who have been an incredible supporter of our Tour as well as golf more widely, from grassroots through to the elite professional game,” said Keith Pelley, chief executive of the European Tour group. “The DP World Tour is, therefore, a natural evolution of our decade-long partnership, and the presence of ‘world’ in our new title better reflects our global reach.”
In a unique sidebar, both the European Tour and DP World will celebrate their 50th anniversaries in 2022.
The partnership between the two sides is now a decade old. The end-to-end supply chain and logistics provider came on as a presenting sponsor of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai finale at Jumeirah Golf Estates in 2009 before upping its stake in the event. It was renamed the DP World Tour Championship in 2012 when DP assumed full title sponsorship.
Three years later DP World became an official partner of the European Tour. It now takes on full title sponsorship duties in a couple of weeks when the DP World Tour opens its 2021-2022 season at the Joburg Open in South Africa.
“Our long-standing partnership has provided an excellent platform to engage with customers, prospects, and stakeholders, and build our brand,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO of DP World. “We have relished the opportunity to support the tour in growing the game of golf and improving access to the sport at all levels. The key to this success has been and will continue to be the shared vision and values that underpin the partnership.”
This next line from bin Sulaymen, I thought, was particularly poignant.
“We both have a global mindset, are committed to inclusivity, and invest in new technologies to stay competitive — attributes which today become the fundamental principles of the DP World Tour,” he said.
Where today’s announcement leaves Norman’s LIV group and whatever lies in prospect to form a direct competitor for the PGA Tour is difficult to say. Then again you can read between the lines of this comment via Jay Monahan.
“Today’s announcement significantly elevates the European Tour on a global basis,” said the PGA Tour commissioner. “We are excited for the continued growth and evolution of the European Tour, as well as the momentum this provides toward our strategic alliance. I’ve said before that our respective tours are positioned to grow — together — over the next 10 years faster than we ever have at any point in our existence.”
The Saudi PIF is valued at approximately $500 billion. Any plans to move forward aren’t likely to be constrained by finances. What Norman’s new series needs are players.
DP World’s investment and title sponsorship of the now former European Tour, if you’ll pardon the pun, may have cut off a potential supply chain.