'Give golf fans what they want' - Dubai call on why tours must coexist
DP World communications chief opens up on ongoing fractured state of game
A senior figure in the company backing the DP World Tour as the circuit’s title sponsor for the next ten years has spoken about how he is still keen to see a global circuit taking shape that also involves the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
On the eve of this week’s DP World Tour Championship, the circuit’s season finale, it was announced that DP World, the multi-national logistics company based in Dubai, has extended a deal to be the tour’s banner backer until 2035.
Guy Kinnings, the European Tour Group’s chief executive officer, described the announcement as “further proof that the DP World Tour is going from strength to strength” while DP World group deputy CEO Yuvraj Narayan hailed the partnership extension as demonstrating the company’s “belief in the tour’s future”.
Coming at a time when the game is still fractured following the launch of LIV Golf and the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith being lured to join the Saudi-backed circuit, the new deal was hailed by Ewen Ferguson, one of 11 Scots who will be card holders on the DP World Tour next season, as “unbelievable”.
Talks between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf around a ‘framework agreement’ appear to have gone very quiet, with US President Donald Trump having been involved in those along with Tiger Woods, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan earlier this year.
Speaking to a small group of reporters in Dubai on Saturday, DP World group communications officer Danny van Otterdijk said: “I'm still of the belief that the only solution to the golfing world is for all three major parties to come together. So LIV/Asian Tour, European Tour and the PGA Tour. Because, if nothing else, golf fans want that. And don't forget, it's the golf fans who pay for all of this, right? If there are no fans, then there is no sponsor, there is no tour, there is no nothing.
“And it's overwhelmingly true that golf fans want to see a unified, golfing platform. Because even now, when you talk to some of the golf fans, you know, Scottie Sheffler is No 1 n the world. But is he? How do you know? You don't know. Where's Jon Rahm? Where's Brooks Koepka? Where's Bryson DeChambeau? “They could be No 1, for all we know, if they played in an equal number of events and they didn't have all the penalties and all the other nonsense that goes with it, then it might be different.
“It feels a little bit like the boxing world. You're the world champion at WBA. But not WBC. So is he better than you are? And it's only really when you're the unified world champion that you can claim that you're truly the world champion, right? Well, nobody can claim that right now. So, even to the players it must feel a little hollow, right?”
Greg Norman drove the launch of the LIV Golf League but has since been replaced as the circuit’s CEO by Scot O’Neil. “Whether you like their products or not, to me that doesn't really matter. They've brought something different - they've tried to disrupt,” observed Van Otterdijk of the breakaway circuit, which is ditching its 54-hole format for the start of the 2026 season and going to 72 holes.
“And I think His Excellency Yasir Al Rumayyan should be congratulated for that if nothing else. But I'm sure that even he would want to see the world of golf come together in a way where all these products that have been created can coexist.”
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