'It Hurts' - Paul McGinley Fed Up With Critics Of DP World Tour's Strategic Alliance

DP World Tour board member Paul McGinley says criticism of their alliance with the PGA Tour is undeserved

Paul McGinley pictured at a press conference
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Paul McGinley says criticism aimed at the DP World Tour for seemingly taking a back seat to the PGA Tour in their “strategic alliance” is “not deserving and it hurts”.

The strategic alliance between the DP World Tour and PGA Tour is seen by many as just a way of fighting off the advances made by LIV Golf in terms of taking players and perhaps more importantly eyeballs and sponsorship away from the main Tours.

A newer, stronger alliance was decided in June, with 10 DP World Tour players earning PGA Tour cards each year, a guaranteed increase in prize money in Europe and formal routes from Australia and South Africa to the DP World Tour.

Three co-sanctioned events including the Genesis Scottish Open were also agreed upon, along with the PGA Tour taking a larger stake in European Tour productions and the commissioner Jay Monahan joining the Wentworth board.

Former Ryder Cup captain McGinley is also a DP World Tour board member, and is fed up of accusations that the European side of things is now just becoming a feeder tour for the larger American outfit.

McGinley says they are merely dealing as best they can with the fact that the American market is so much bigger, and says criticism of the DP World Tour is unjustified.

“The comparison back to the good old days of Seve (Ballesteros) and (Bernhard) Langer is very unfair because the dynamics of golf have changed and the European market is totally dwarfed by the American market,” McGinley told The Times.

“Playing schedules have changed and we are working with cards that have been played with us. There are some very clever business people on that board - I don’t mean me - and to be dismissed so easily as making stupid decisions is disrespectful. It’s not deserving and it hurts.”

Many say the new alliance will result in European events seeing even less of the top stars in golf, but Rory McIlroy is among those backing the move, and he says that 2023 will be more of a bridge year with 2024 seeing a bigger change.

"I think that's [2024] when you're going to start to see the benefits of this partnership," said McIlroy.

"There's a lot of moving parts to this. I think by giving everyone 15 months to get their head around it and put their heads together and come up with what I think is going to be an unbelievable calendar for golf in 2024, I think that's a great thing."

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Paul Higham
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Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.