'Just 15 Events To Keep My Card' - Two-Time Winner And Former LIV Pro Frustrated By DP World Tour As He Returns From Injury

Justin Harding played just five times in 2023 due to a hip injury, and now says he'll only have 15 starts on the DP World Tour in 2024 to try and keep his card

Justin Harding
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Higham
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Two-time tournament winner Justin Harding has been as high as 42nd on the Official World Golf Ranking, but says he'll find it tough to keep his DP World Tour card this season due to a lack of starts afforded to him.

Harding won the 2019 Qatar Masters and 2021 Kenya Open, but a serious hip injury saw him play just five times in 2023 and saw his season ended in March.

After also missing the end of the 2022 season with the same problem, Harding was hoping for things to look up in 2024 but says he will only have a limited number of starts to try and keep his card.

The South African is not playing at the Joburg Open in his homeland as the 2024 DP World Tour season kicks off this week, and is unhappy with the number of events he's allowed to play in.

“Albeit I’ve only played 5 DP World Tour events spanning what will now be 3 seasons and 15 months the tour seems determined to give me just 15 events to keep my card this upcoming season," Harding wrote on social media.

Harding says he must seek permission from the DP World Tour to go and play on the Asian Tour in the meantime, but will probably have to wait until the Challenge Tour in February to make his return to tournament golf.

It's a complicated situation and one which is frustrating the 37-year-old, who is eager to get back into action but knows that from the very start he'll be under pressure to perform.

"Frustratingly that decision affects my return to competitive golf (I'm not at present allowed to play Asian Tour without permission and/or further events being deducted from the 15) and as such will likely only be able to return to competition in February with some Challenge Tour events."

Harding played in the inaugural LIV Golf event at Centurion in 2022 and the second tournament, but never signed a deal with the Saudi-backed outfit.

Now, after so long out of action with injury, he's itching to get back into the swing of things but may not find it easy to compete in the standings with limited starts available to him.

Paul Higham
Paul Higham
Contributor

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. 

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