Asian Tour Deal 'Great News' - But LIV Star Says 'We Opened The Door' To Global Golf

Joaquin Niemann says the new Asian Tour deal with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour is "great news" but insisted the possibility of more top-level global golf is down to LIV's success.

The Chilean is teeing it up at LIV Golf UK, which is being played in the backdrop of news about the team tour's future dropping left, right and center.

Big news came with the Asian Tour signing a deal with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour to create a new partnership, having previously been attached to LIV Golf.

Niemann says the deal won't affect his or his team's future and says it's great news for the Asian Tour - with LIV Golf to thank for the new focus on global golf.

"It doesn't affect anything on my side," Niemann said of the Asian Tour deal. "I feel like it's great what is happening."

Niemann added that LIV Golf should be credited with championing the case for more global golf, with this new Asian Tour deal helping to continue expanding the sport internationally.

"We all know that we opened the door to a lot more golf around the world, and I think what they're doing, the alliance is definitely going to help to grow the game all over the world," said Niemann.

"Yeah, it's great news, I think, for golf."

Through the cash of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the Asian Tour grew thanks to a connection with LIV Golf - the International Series of events had some of the team tour's biggest names playing to help attract more eyeballs on them.

There was also a pathway from the Asian Tour into LIV Golf which helped raise the quality of players competing, and looking for that golden ticket into the league that dished out huge sums in prize purses.

LIV Golf losing that association with the Asian Tour is a blow though to CEO Scott O'Neil and his hopes of attracting new finance to continue playing into next season.

'Time to restructure & make LIV better'

And after the regular weekly meeting ahead of LIV Golf UK, Niemann says O'Neil was still acting confident that a new form of the league would be operating in 2027.

"We had a nice meeting yesterday, as we always do almost every week," said Niemann.

"Scott and his team are always trying to inform and let us know what they're doing the best he can possibly communicate with us, and we're always trying to get feedback on our opinions and thoughts on how to have a better product and hopefully have something bigger and better for next year."

There's obviously still a lot of doubt and uncertainty around LIV's future, with even Niemann sounding a word of caution about the tour being able to continue.

The one thing Niemann is sure on though is his opinion that LIV only enhances the world of golf, and his wish is for O'Neil to be able to restructure the tour and improve it in order to carry on into the future.

"I would be interested to see first what's going to happen, and I would be interested to see this league continue and deliver for the world and golf because I think there's a lot of fans out there that deserve this kind of tournament, this kind of field, these kind of players, and we've done it great so far," said Niemann.

"It's now time to restructure a little bit things and make it better."