MANAMA, BAHRAIN | Sometimes the fates, or maybe just coincidence, pen the best plot lines.
So it was that twice a day – on the journey from the official hotel to the course and back again – the field at last week’s DP World Tour’s Bahrain Championship passed a signpost for the 25-mile causeway that leads west all the way to Saudi Arabia.
The players quite literally took another route to Royal Golf Club, just as the tour metaphorically did when the Saudis offered significant investment in the circuit during its early stages of involvement in the sport. Quite where that latter decision to take a different path might lead remains unclear. The future, alas, is not as straightforwardly marked as road networks are.
But news of the PGA Tour’s new private-equity deal with the Strategic Sports Group – and the perception by many that the DP World Tour is a long way down the pecking order when it comes to allocation of the billions pumped into the sport as a consequence – prompted many in Bahrain to ponder what lies ahead.
Wandering the clubhouse and range, I found it easy to pick up on a kaleidoscope of vibes. Players, caddies, officials, members of the media and fans all had thoughts. Excited and positive, confused and weary, angry and sad, bullish and cowed – it was all there. Some shrugged and said it was proof the circuit is now nothing more than a feeder tour; others shrugged and said it always has been. Some eyed opportunity; others felt wounded that their loyalty had been betrayed.
If we were to crudely distil the argument, you might say there are roughly two sides and both consider themselves to be realists but in different senses. The pessimistic realists believe that, while LIV Golf and the PGA Tour are pumping oil, and with it vast riches, from the earth like the nodding donkey behind the 17th green at The Royal, the DP World Tour, in contrast, is scrambling around in the dust. These folks are less willing to go on record, wary of the poisonous state of contemporary golfing politics.
“Guys out here need to be realistic about the value we add and, let’s be honest, over a 12-month period there are weeks when we add a lot of value and weeks when we really don’t. It’s recognising where we sit in the golfing landscape, and frankly we’re third.”
Eddie Pepperell
The optimistic realists consider that notions of the DP World Tour ever having been a genuine powerhouse in the game are as flimsy as the palm tree disguises of the satellite towers in the middle of the back nine and therefore, in a hard-nosed new world order, it should be thankful for what it has and what the new PGA Tour deal promises.
England’s Eddie Pepperell, a two-time tour winner, somewhat fits into the latter category. “In as much as I’m aware of what has happened, I’m not really concerned,” he said. “Because through the first five years of the 13-year PGA Tour/DP World Tour strategic alliance, there is an agreement to underpin DP World Tour prize funds for a lot of money, sums that will increase every year.
“That commitment is significant. From what we currently understand, the PGA Tour is getting yet more money, and some of that will arguably come our way. I would say there is relative security in the next three to four years. Beyond that, there’s no doubt it is cloudier, but you would hope that by then there is more direction within the professional game.
Perhaps the real nub of the issue is one of identity. How do you fathom a riddle that sees the DP World Tour membership playing for greater prize money, with a confirmed pathway to the PGA Tour via the annual provision of 10 cards, yet at the same time world-ranking points have diminished and prestige is flagging?
The problem is that elite-level sport is hierarchical, the PGA Tour is top of the pile, and notions that DP World Tour golfers are second-class stings the pride. It is why the PGA Tour breakthrough of France’s Matthieu Pavon, with victory in the recent Farmers Insurance Open three starts into his PGA Tour rookie season, has provided such a fillip.
“People say this tour is a family,” said another Englishman, Matthew Southgate. “Matthieu is not a close friend of mine, but I’ve seen how diligently he works and what a passionate competitor he is. Seeing him hole the winning putt brought a tear to my eye because I knew what it meant to him, and I’m a passionate DP World Tour golfer and fan.
“I think it’s fair to say that Matthieu didn’t dominate on this tour. That’s partly because he’s found something in the last six months, but it also points to the quality here.
“I’ll be honest: I avoid the business and politics, but it’s unfair when we’re labelled a feeder or a mediocre tour. I was chatting to [Sweden’s] Jonas Blixt this week. He’s played mostly on the PGA Tour, and he said he couldn’t believe the standard of the golf here.”
Southgate, a three-time top-25 finisher in the Open, has been thinking about all the money coming into the sport.
“We make a really good living out here, and there is more cash coming. Do we add that to prize funds? Or do we invest it? Do we get more cameras on the course, do more social, tell more and better stories about our players?
“Think about Aaron Rai. He went to the PGA Tour and has stayed there. We knew he’d make it. Did we make the most of him when he was here?
“There’s going to be more like him. We need to promote these guys while we have them, before they become big. Someone like [Northern Ireland’s] Tom McKibbin. He’s a fabulous golfer, and he will not be on this tour forever. We shouldn’t wait. We should benefit from them now.”
Veteran Mike Lorenzo-Vera also shared pragmatic thoughts after issuing a wonderfully musketeer-like appraisal of his compatriot Pavon’s triumph.
“I am so happy for him because he worked so hard for this,” Lorenzo-Vera said. “Really, he has been working his ass off. It is also nice that he has a little bit of revenge on some very high-up people in French golf who underestimated him publicly, and he has proved them wrong – not just wrong but very wrong. I am super happy for him doing that.
“His success also shows that we have great talent here, and why? Because this tour is very difficult, with many challenges that the PGA Tour does not have. But, of course, the chance to go to the PGA Tour is life-changing because of the money. It’s also life-changing because for some players, like Matthieu, it is their dream to play in America.”
Identity is a ticklish puzzle. The European Tour was an underdog, and that status fueled its growth; the DP World Tour is an underdog, but it is yet to conceive of a way to use it to any advantage.
E-MAIL MATT
Top: Matthieu Pavon's recent PGA Tour win at the Farmers Insurance Open speaks to the level of talent on the DP World Tour.
Ross Kinnaird, Getty Images)