Creating Rory's World Tour

The future of professional golf is a huge unknown. The question of “will they merge?” or “won’t they merge” isn’t nearly as fascinating at “if they merge, what does that look like?”.

After his third round at the Genesis Invitational, Rory McIlroy provided some thoughts on what a “world golf tour” could actually look like. I’m going to take the few details McIlroy offered and start to lay a foundation of how this could actually work.

Here are the rules:

• World Tour is for Top 80 Players

• All other leagues would “feed up to that one”

• Events would have to be global

• Everything else is made up by me — there will be mistakes, compromises, cooperation, and negotiations that need to happen, which is way above my paygrade.

• Let’s have some fun.

Structure

The World Golf Tour would feature the Top 80 players in the world, with both the PGA TOUR and LIV Golf feeding into the WGT as the second level.

Level 3 would be the Korn Ferry Tour and DP World Tour which would feed into Level 2.

Level 4 would feed into Level 3 and belong to PGA TOUR Americas, Asian Tour, KPGA, Challenge Tour and Japan Golf Tour.

All other tours would be in Level 5 and beyond, feeding upwards.

The Bottom 20 of the WGT would be relegated into Level 2 with both the PGA TOUR and LIV Golf each promoting 10 golfers into the WGT.

Similarly the bottom X% of every tour would be relegated with the top X% of every tour being promoted.

WGT - 80 Players
PGA TOUR - 100 Players
LIV Golf - 54 Players
Korn Ferry Tour - 150 Players
DP World Tour - 150 Players
PGA TOUR Americas- 150 Players
Asian Tour- 150 Players
KPGA- 150 Players
Challenge Tour- 150 Players
Japan Golf Tour- 150 Players
Total: 1,284 Players

There would be an issue with a differing number of Level 2 (PGA & LIV) golfers both feeding the same amount into the WGT. However, with LIV likely planning to continue their team component along with “secure captains” this might be a tradeoff that has to happen.

After each season, 20 WGT players would drop down into Level 2 and replaced by 10 golfers from the PGA TOUR and 10 from LIV.

The bottom 20 golfers from the PGA TOUR and the bottom 16 golfers from LIV would be dropped into Level 3 and replaced by the top 18 golfers from the Korn Ferry Tour and the top 18 golfers from the DP World Tour.

The bottom 30 golfers from the KFT and DP World Tour would drop into Level 4 and be replaced by the Top 12 golfers from each of PGA TOUR Americas, Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, KPGA, Challenge Tour.

So on, so forth…

Scoring System

There would need to be a universal scoring system to determine which golfers are promoted/relegated. Each tour could continue with their current systems but would track a global score in addition.

For example, the PGA TOUR could continue to hand out FedEx Cup points however they see fit to determine their playoffs and TOUR Champion but those wouldn’t apply to the promotion/relegation system. This would ensure there is little collusion by the tours to feed specific golfers around the world.

The top 20 in every event get points, with the winner getting 25 points and 20th getting one point. Every position has a different number of points awarded so that “every shot matters” and all ties are given full points.

The “World Champion” of the WGT is crowned by whoever has the most points at the end of the season — no playoffs required.

This same system determines the promotion/relegation movement.

WGT Schedule

This is probably the hardest part — but let’s go.

16 Events + 4 Majors

*November: Rotating “Opening Swings” (Tokyo, South Korea), (South Africa)
December: Adelaide, Australian Open
January: Dubai, Jeddah
February: Phoenix, Los Angeles
March: PLAYERS, Bay Hill
April: Masters, Harbour Town
May: PGA Championship, Canadian Open
June: U.S. Open, Memorial
July: Open Championship, Scottish Open
August: French Open, Spanish Open
September: OFF (Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup)
October: OFF

*Season Start

The idea is to take the signature events and biggest events from all tours to include in the World Golf Tour schedule. There should be an emphasis on National Championships since they are historic, awesome and great way to grow the game.

Most tournaments would remain in their current spot on the calendar — obviously we aren’t going to Phoenix in July. This would also give two months off for the top players to rest, participate in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, while also avoiding the start of the NFL season (but this is global, so who cares?).

The rotating opening swing allows for trying out emerging markets and making sure to visit places that might not be on the regular calendar.

Players

The “Top 80” needs to be defined in some way. Everyone probably has a different idea. Here are the Top 80 from DataGolf’s rankings, with no manipulation from me.

This is 61 players currently on the PGA TOUR, 13 golfers from LIV, 5 from the DP World Tour and 1 from the PGA TOUR Champions (shoutout Steve Stricker).

PGA TOUR & LIV Golf

The Level 2 tours will likely see the biggest ramifications. Their best players and best events will be elevated to the World Tour.

LIV Golf is probably more prepared to handle something like this, since they could just continue to lean into their team competition while showcasing their player personalities who wouldn’t make the World Tour (Mickelson, Bubba, Poulter, Wolff, etc)

The PGA TOUR would see the biggest disruption based on how it’s currently run. They could fill out the schedule by removing opposite field events and raising them to regular TOUR stops plus adding back in the Match Play.

They wouldn’t compete against WGT events, likely making the regular PGA TOUR schedule smaller — which could be a good thing. They would still be able to have a Playoff System, TOUR Championship and now they could sell another sponsorship of the Official Point Ranking System.

The “new PGA TOUR” would unveil Michael Kim as their best golfer (ranked 81st in the DataGolf rankings) and would still have some star power like Rickie Fowler. I imagine you’d see a heavy investment in the PGA TOUR U system to fast-track the likes of Gordon Sargent, Michael Thorbjornsen, etc.

They will still have the benefit of distribution partners and the habitual fans tuning in every single week. Plus, money should be rolling in hand over fist with the new WGT.

Level 3 Tours

The Korn Ferry Tour could basically continue as-is without any disruption. It’s already a feeder tour and doesn’t have any events or players that would be compromised.

The DP World Tour would feel some impact of losing some more of their great players and would truly become a feeder tour that many DP World Tour supporters worried about. The positives include money (!!) and also having some of their events elevated to WGT status.

The Majors

Basically immune from all this — as they are right now. They could update their qualification process to use World Points or take the top X from each league. That’s on them.

Conclusion

There are problems with this and not everyone is going to like it. But there are problems with the current system and not everyone likes that. There will be winners and losers but is this better than the current fractured landscape?

That’s for you to decide.

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