Among the unanswered questions from the PGA Tour’s Tuesday eligibility announcement: How will the league’s strategic alliance with the DP World Tour factor into this impending two-tiered competitive model?
Following next season’s transition period, future fields for the top level, dubbed the Championship Series, will be filled with the top 90 performers from the previous season; top 20 players from the second tier, the Challenger Series; two-time Challenger winners; the No. 1 player in PGA Tour University; three players from a new Last Chance Series; plus limited medical extensions and career milestone exemptions.
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What was not included were top performers from the European circuit, which entered its partnership with the PGA Tour five years ago. Currently, the top 10 players in the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai, not already eligible, receive PGA Tour membership; PGA Tour players who benefitted from such include Robert MacIntyre and Min Woo Lee.
The PGA Tour said in its release that “access available to top performers from the DP World Tour is being considered as part of the ongoing discussions regarding the future of the strategic alliance.”
Golf Digest reported the reason for the notable omission of the DP World Tour from this eligibility update “mostly lies with LIV.” With former and current LIV players flocking to the DP World Tour in response to LIV’s uncertainly and recent bankruptcy filing, there would be a real possibility that such players could find themselves a pathway into the PGA Tour’s top tier should the PGA Tour just repurpose those 10 cards for the Championship Series. That, Digest says, is unpopular among PGA Tour players.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp addressed LIV and DP World Tour on Tuesday, revealing that he had a discussion with the European circuit on Monday.
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“Like any discussions, there’s things we agree on, things we don’t agree on, things we’re trying to work through, and we’ll continue to do that,” Rolapp said.
Rolapp added that he did not envision zero Championship cards being reserved for top DP World Tour performers, and Digest shared that the 10 current cards could be split between the Championship and Challenger, with potentially just three going to the top tier.
Rory McIlroy, speaking Tuesday from the BMW PGA at Wentworth, expressed that he believes the hangup deals with how many DP World Tour players should graduate to the Championship Series. He also again knocked the Challenger, which he had previously likened to the Korn Ferry Tour.
“I guess from my point of view, I don’t see any reason why a DP World Tour player would go to the Challenger Series,” McIlroy said. “I don’t see that as an upward move in your career. I see it as a very lateral move. So, it would just be, OK, how many cards is reasonable to give to the DP World Tour for the Championship Series? I would imagine that’s sort of what the ongoing discussions are. … I’m a dual member, but I just don’t see – I mean, you’re really trying to create something on this tour (DPWT) that is a viable alternative to the Challenger Series. Obviously, this is going to be a pathway to the Championship Series. No one’s going to argue that the Championship Series is going to be the highest level of Tour golf that you can play, and then it’s just deciding what an adequate number of cards is to go from here to the Championship Series.”
The PGA Tour is expected to further flesh out its eligibility model by November.
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