This has been quite some season for 27-year-old Marco Penge. His win at the Spanish Open ten days ago was his third on the DP World Tour this year. He lies second to Rory McIlroy on the Race to Dubai standings which will reach its conclusion next month. His win in Madrid has earned him a place in the Masters and the Open Championship in 2026.
And the Englishman will indeed be getting more than that. As he is certain to be among the top-10 players in Europe at season’s end who do not hold a PGA Tour card, he will be gaining one with effect from next season. “I’m playing the PGA Tour next year,” he said after his latest victory, “and hopefully I can have a great season and finish in the [FedEx Cup] playoffs there and then come back to the DP World Tour and play the rest of the season here.”
The earning of a PGA Tour card is self-evidently good news for Penge. But for the DP World Tour? It obviously means that every year it faces the likelihood of its best players seeking to do what Penge plans to achieve; every year, its best players will be looking to play the majority of their golf in the United States. This is part and parcel of the ‘strategic alliance’ between the European Tour Group and the PGA Tour which came into existence in 2022. The agreement runs until 2035.
As part of a separate (albeit related) arrangement, the PGA Tour presently provides unlimited and non-refundable annual support payments to the European Tour. According to the SportBusiness website, for last year this sum was £21.5 million, an increase of 9.7% compared to 2023. The site also says that in 2024 the company’s operating loss was £27.6 million, the highest figure for six years. In return for its assistance, the PGA Tour has a stake in European Tour Productions, the Tour’s media-rights operation. This multi-layered level of co-operation was initiated to help the Tour raise its purses in order to fend off advances to its players from LIV Golf.
Talking of which…LIV Golf Ltd, the UK-based company which manages the affairs of the Saudi-backed operation outside the United States, posted losses of £461.8 million for last year. That takes its total losses to £1.1 billion. That’s a lot of money to launch something which cannot be described as a success – well, other than incidentally creating more playing opportunities for DP World Tour players to try their luck in the States.
The Saudis have very deep pockets. But they are not stupid and they surely have pride. For how long will they want to carry on throwing enormous sums of money at a project that since June 2023 has been one-third of a ‘framework agreement’ with the PGA Tour and the European Tour without ever looking that it’s likely to get anywhere beyond that? Hey, even Donald Trump has given up on getting a deal done here.
For winning a golf tournament, the victorious player will receive a trophy. At this rate, one wonders whether the LIV Golf circuit will eventually simply atrophy.