Despite the “framework agreement” being reached between the PGA Tour and the PIF in June 2023, there have been very few signs of progress towards the unifying of professional golf.
While speaking with Gulf News, DP World Group Chief Communications Officer Daniel Van Otterdijk shared that he believes that the PGA Tour, LIV and the DP World Tour will be unified in the near future.
“If you take the sort of media nonsense and the perceived politics out of it and look at all three bodies … they are all entities that love golf—no doubt about it,” Van Otterdijk said.
“So, everyone has the right intention. And when you have parties who disagree on the way forward, but everybody has the right intention, inevitably they come together and solve it.
“The way that it will go, as far as we can see, if you look at cricket as a model, cricketers these days can play in franchise leagues around the world—the IPL, the Big Bash—whatever it is.
“They make a schedule based on their fitness and all the rest of it. They’re playing those tournaments and making their money."
“But they’re governed by a variety of different bodies – a very powerful body, the BCCI, the MCC, and then you’ve got Cricket Australia, Cricket New Zealand, and so on.
“They’ve all got their own governorships, if you like, and yet they work harmoniously together through the ICC in creating a schedule where, I wouldn’t say there’s none, but there’s limited overlap between all the franchise tournaments that get played.
“Golf will head the same way.”
Not only did Van Otterdijk express his belief that the deal will come together soon, while noting his company has no direct role in negotiations, but he also gave his best guess as to what a post-agreement professional golf landscape would look like.
“A guy like Tommy (Fleetwood) can say, ‘Look, I want to keep my PGA Tour card, I want to play on the DP World Tour, but I’d like to play some LIV Golf events as well.’
“I think LIV Golf will combine their current team structure—that will probably drop, but they’ll still have team events.
“All of those events would see the players earn points that would secure them a spot at the season-ending events on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour—that still needs to be worked out.
“But I’m confident that there will be an end-to-end calendar with about 60 tournaments, with players looking to play around 25 in order to gather all the points they need if they play well.”
It's been a turbulent few years for golf fans. If Van Otterdijk's idea comes to fruition sooner rather than later, the professional game would undoubtedly find itself in a better place.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as DP World Official Optimistic About Potential Deal to End Split in Pro Golf.
