'I Personally Would Like To See Them Cut It Off Completely' - Pro Calls For DP World Tour To End PGA Tour 10 Cards Pathway

Three-time European Tour winner Peter Baker says the scheme of the DP World Tour offering ten PGA Tour cards to its to players "needs" to be looked at and should be completely cut-off in an ideal world.

The former Ryder Cupper, who played at The Belfry in 1993 and was also a vice captain at The K Club in 2006, admits his home circuit has been in a "tricky spot" since LIV Golf emerged on the scene but believes it now has an opportunity to grow following the former Saudi-backed league's collapse.

Baker, who has eight Legends Tour titles and won the Order of Merit in 2023, was speaking to Golf Monthly at the recent Champions (UK) plc European Senior Masters.

On where the DP World Tour currently finds itself, he said: "It has been in a tricky spot for a while I think with LIV. I think there’s an opportunity there to get right back into it and be a really competitive tour again against the PGA Tour of course," he said.

"The PGA Tour has always been the leader really with the players, all the best players have always gone to the PGA Tour, they always used to go over there and play. They’d play before the Majors, the Woosnams, the Faldos, the Langers and they’d always go over there and play before the Majors to get used to it for a few weeks and then come back.

"But they’d always support the European Tour at the same time, whereas I think the schedule they have on the PGA Tour now almost requires them to play there a lot more. But hopefully we can get back to where we were, I think that’d be good.

"I certainly wouldn’t be sending 10 of our best players over to America every year to play there, I think that needs to be looked at.

"Maybe give the opportunity to a few, maybe. I’ve never liked that. I know the reasons why but I’d like to see them get rid of that."

Baker certainly isn't the only one to hold this view, and the scheme has not exactly been a glowing success across the board.

There have undoubtedly been some huge success stories, though, with Robert MacIntyre, Ryan Fox, Kristoffer Reitan and a handful of others making great use of the pathway to truly elevate their careers.

But overall, many players who make it through end up losing their cards and find themselves back on the DP World Tour after a costly season in America.

This year, three of the ten graduates made it into the FedExCup Playoffs and five finished the regular season inside the top 100 of the rankings, forcing many to play through the FedExCup Fall to retain status instead of playing in the best stretch of the DP World Tour season.

The stats don't make for fantastic reading, but Reitan won a Signature Event and earned over $6m and is back for the DP World Tour Play-Offs so there are examples of players making great use of what has been quite a controversial initiative.

"The fallout and the stats are remarkably bad. It has taken a lot of the guys a couple of years to get back to anything like before they went, so yeah it’s something to think about," Baker said on the initiative not working for everyone.

"I personally would like to see them cut it off completely but that’s probably being a bit selfish from European point of view as I guess the players want the opportunity to go. I certainly think ten is too many, for sure."

Do you think ten cards it too many? Let us know your views on Baker's thoughts in the comments section below.