Why The Lines Between DP World Tour And LIV Golf Are Starting To Look Blurry

Some golf fans might be a little surprised when they turn on the TV and see that around a third of LIV Golf's entire roster is playing on the DP World Tour this week.

The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is once again filled with players from the Saudi-backed team tour, many of whom remain DP World Tour members and others who have received sponsors invitations.

Casual fans could be forgiven for thinking that the DP World Tour had come to some form of agreement with LIV Golf, especially following last week's Ryder Cup that included both Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.

The LIV pair were among Luke Donald's top players in New York and were only able to retain their DPWT memberships and play for the European team after appealing their fines and sanctions from the circuit.

Since the DP World Tour won an appeal at Sport Resolutions in 2023, the tour is able to fine and sanction its members for playing in LIV Golf tournaments without a conflicting events release.

This is different to the PGA Tour, which outright suspended its players for joining LIV Golf since the first ball was struck in 2022, while a number of players resigned their memberships.

Multiple DP World Tour players withdrew their memberships on the former European Tour when they left for LIV Golf but many have continued - like Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Reed, Tom McKibbin, Thomas Pieters and Adrian Meronk - while racking up fines and sanctions that are being appealed.

Lee Westwood revealed his fines from the tour exceeded $1m while Sergio Garcia paid his fines said to be around the same value to rejoin the circuit in hopes of returning to the European Ryder Cup team.

Rahm and Hatton officially appealed their DP World Tour sanctions and fines last year, in the same way that other LIV Golfers who have retained their memberships have done, but the date of the outcome to their appeals remains unknown.

The DP World Tour told Golf Monthly that no timeline has been set for the appeals yet.

Rahm even recently revealed that he had forgot the process was even ongoing.

"I have no idea. I have no clue. To be fair, I completely forgot about, which is a good thing. I hope I forget about it until it happens," Rahm said at the BMW PGA Championship.

From the outside looking in, it seems that the DP World Tour is more than happy to have LIV Golf players in its tournaments as they add star-value and help to drive ticket sales and TV ratings.

This continues all the while the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV Golf, have still not reached an agreement. The DP World Tour may have thought that a deal would have been sorted by now, the men's game would be back together and the fines and sanctions could be left behind.

The original 'merger' announcement between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour was June 6th 2023, and the PGA Tour has now received $1.5bn in investment from the Sports Strategic Group.

The golf world remains fractured and there doesn't appear to be any genuine hope of it reuniting any time soon.

It seemed that the DP World Tour was getting lost in it all, but offering a viable place for LIV Golfers to compete while they have no other tournaments to play seems to work for the tour, the fans and the players themselves.

Some rank-and-file DP World Tour players are likely unhappy about 16 LIV players teeing it up this week as it takes away spots from other members and this is all while the tour is fining and sanctioning its players every time they play on LIV Golf - which is 14 times per year.

You can how the optics look a little confusing.

So, what's next?

A report from The Telegraph's James Corrigan in July stated that LIV Golf would no longer pay its players' DP World Tour fines next year.

That would certainly cause some issues as Jon Rahm has previously stated that he has no intentions of paying them.

If he loses his appeal, once it is finally heard, it could well be that he resigns his membership. That would be a huge blow to the DP World Tour and render him ineligible for the Ryder Cup. It's the same with Hatton.

This points to a deal being made between the DP World Tour and LIV Golf via the Saudi PIF, but that could well infringe on the strategic alliance between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

A 'ground-breaking new 13-year operational joint venture partnership' was announced in 2022, which sees ten DPWT players earn PGA Tour cards each year and some co-sanctioned tournaments including the Genesis Scottish Open, while the PGA Tour upped its stake in European Tour Productions from 15 percent to 40 percent.

The PGA Tour appears to be getting the better deal from the alliance, which sees it gain ten potential stars each year and stop its rival LIV Golf from strengthening by joining up with the DP World Tour.

It certainly appears that the DP World Tour is sandwiched in a slightly difficult situation.

What comes next is genuinely unknown and CEO Guy Kinnings clearly has some difficult decisions to make in navigating the coming years.