The Dutch Open, won on Sunday by the Frenchman Victor Perez, is more than a hundred years old and an indispensable institution on the DP World Tour, the circuit with tournaments for professional golfers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. At this level, Joost Luiten and Wil Besseling, the best two Dutch golfers at the moment, play almost weekly. Luiten played very well on the first day of the Dutch Open, but not on the following days. The two-time winner of the tournament just finished in the top-50.
In a week and a half, Luiten will play a tournament in Sweden and not at the Centurion Golf Club in London, where the LIV Golf International Series kicks off at the same time. This new initiative, promoted by Australian former player Greg Norman in his role as CEO, is being financed with a lot of money from Saudi Arabia. To make a comparison, 156 golfers took part in the Dutch Open for a total prize pool of two million dollars. In London, 48 players are distributing $25 million.
Money is LIV’s biggest and only magnet as players cannot earn world ranking points and risk being banned from even the most prestigious tournaments if they participate. The LIV Series are seen as a hostile competitor and a threat by the DP World Tour and the American PGA Tour, the circuit on which the very best golfers play against each other. Both tours seem to be able to count on the support of the majority of golf fans on social media for the time being.
‘blood money’
The tour players, who have raved about the hanging golden sausage and are all multi-millionaires, are being taken for money wolves. Moreover, the human rights-violating regime of Saudi Arabia is also involved in the discussion. Money from Saudi Arabia is ‘blood money’. Last month, the players on both tours received a memo from the management. Those who let themselves be seduced by the Saudis can count on sanctions, was more or less the message. Two weeks ago, both tours rejected the first requests from players to participate in London.
Luiten has yet to see it all. Greg Norman has approached the first hundred players of the world ranking and the winner of six tournaments on the DP World Tour has not been that high for some time. If the invitation still comes, the 36-year-old Luiten will not turn it down in advance. “This is my profession and if a new party comes along that pays maybe ten times as much as I can earn now, it’s something to consider. Not an easy consideration, because on the current tour I’ve had a lot of success. I also owe a lot to them. But the whole world revolves around money.”
The DP World Tour, with a name sponsor from Dubai, is also not averse to Arab money. In recent years, a tournament in Saudi Arabia has been on the calendar. The world top players from America were brought there with a lot of money. That makes it interesting for golfers like Luiten to participate again, because then there are more world ranking points and money to be made. “I understand that there is criticism, but we have also been playing in Qatar and China for years. Those aren’t the best countries either. As a player, I don’t want to get involved in the political game.”
A pact of two tours
The Saudi revolution is certainly a topic of discussion among colleagues, says Luiten. A number of renown players are wisely keeping quiet when it comes to whether they will make an appearance at the Centurion Club, a short distance from the DP World Tour headquarters. Where others, such as Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas, have expressed support and commitment to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and aversion to the LIV Series. According to Luiten, the DP World Tour is afraid that the TV rights will no longer be worth anything if many toppers defect. “That’s their biggest source of income and when that happens, they have a big problem.”
That is why the two major tours have made a pact together, says Daan Slooter, tournament director of the Dutch Open. “The PGA Tour helps its European brother, because they themselves benefit from a strong tour in Europe. Thanks to that support, for example, all tournaments on the DP World Tour now have at least two million dollars as prize money. We also.”
Luiten: „The DP World Tour has the rights of the Ryder Cup, which is again interesting for the PGA Tour and a moneyship that inland shipping. But if the Ryder Cup becomes less interesting to watch, it affects both tours.”
Time will tell, Slooter says. „So far it is a lot of air and we have to wait for the first tournament. Maybe that will be a failure and the discussion will be over in no time.”
“But what if it becomes a success?”, says Luiten. „Then in a while you can no longer afford not to allocate world ranking points to those tournaments. I am more in favor of working together than against each other.”
The Dutch players, who now earn an income on the DP World Tour, must hope that everything stays the same. Slooter does not expect that money will soon become the main motivation for young talent. “They have the dream to play the Tiger Woods records from the books and you can’t do that if you can’t compete in majors. For now, that new tour will have to rely on players who have had a great career and now want to be well rewarded for their services.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 30, 2022
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