In Dubai last Sunday, Matt Fitzpatrick won the DP World Tour Championship for a third time while Rory McIlroy, whom he beat in a playoff to claim victory, won the Race to Dubai for the fourth straight year and the seventh time overall. Colin Montgomerie’s outright record of eight times being the leading annual money-winner in European golf might not hold out for much longer.
“The world of professional golf is still a little weird,” the Irishman said afterwards. “Who knows what the future is going to look like?” On that front, there was a boost for the Tour in Europe with DP World signing an extension to the deal whereby it is the Tour’s title sponsor and official logistics partner. The arrangement now runs until 2035. “This long-term investment demonstrates our belief in the Tour’s future,” said Yuvraj Narayan, deputy CEO of DP World.
But, of course, there is the elephant in the clubhouse to which McIlroy was alluding. “The only solution to the golfing world is for all three major parties to come together,” said Daniel Van Otterdijk, DP World’s group chief communications officer. “That’s LIV/Asian Tour, European Tour and the PGA Tour. Because if nothing else, golf fans want that.”
That is probably true but it doesn’t mean they’re going to get it. Despite Greg Norman being replaced by the less abrasive Scott O’Neil as CEO at LIV Golf, there is a view that LIV is now less relevant than it was. Phil Mickelson is surely over the hill. Brooks Koepka looks a shadow of the guy who’s won five major championships (he missed the cut in three of the four he played this season). Joaquin Niemann may be a big star on LIV but he was far from that on the PGA Tour. Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm are likely the only names on the LIV roster that Brian Rolapp would ideally like to see on his PGA Tour. One could add Tyrrell Hatton to that short list.
Certainly a solution of some sort needs to be found if Rahm and Hatton are going to be eligible for the next Ryder Cup. The PGA Tour position seems firmly against welcoming back any LIV ‘rebels’ but, in an interview with Iain Carter of the BBC, Van Otterdijk indicated he hoped things may be different on this side of the Atlantic.
“Those guys [Rahm and Hatton] may decide ‘we’ve made our money on LIV; we’d like to go back to do other tours’. Do they come back to the European Tour, for example?” Guy Kinnings, CEO of the European Tour Group, is understandably not keen to get drawn on the subject. Van Otterdijk was less circumspect. “That may be a good way of doing it.” He added, unsurprisingly: “That would suit us.” His company, remember, is the organisation that’s paying the piper.
Rahm played two DP World Tour events between the Open Championship and the end of the season. Hatton played five. (Koepka, incidentally, played four.) I wouldn’t necessarily suggest that LIV is going nowhere or even going away but, after over three years of its existence, I doubt it’s in a place its founders hoped for or envisaged.
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com as well as his golf archive on robertgreen-golf.com
