Following his victory at the Dubai Desert Classic last week, Patrick Reed’s less-than-committed comments about where his future lay garnered a significant amount of interest. He kept his cards close to his chest for the most part, saying that, no, he hadn’t re-signed with LIV, but played it off as being just down to a work-in-progress with the contract talks. But that was all people needed. The crumbs were there to follow for anyone who cared to look; the potential seeds of discontent lurking in the long grass.
Well, as of Wednesday, just three short days after his victory in Dubai, both Patrick Reed and the PGA Tour announced that he would be seeking the reinstatement of his membership for the 2027 season, something he would be eligible to do because he resigned his membership in 2022 before there were any PGA Tour Regulations for him to violate – a handy loophole if there ever was one.
What really stands out about this whole story, though – apart from the dangerous precedent that seems to be forming with LIV players coming to the end of their contracts – is the pivotal role that the DP World Tour is, seemingly, going to play in Patrick Reed regaining his full playing rights on the PGA Tour.
Now, in a nutshell, when you piece together their respective statements, this is the current state of play. Beginning on the 25th of August this year, Patrick will be eligible to play on the PGA Tour as a non-member. At that time, he will be eligible to play in FedEx Cup Fall events should he receive sponsor exemptions or by participating in open qualifying for those tournaments. Then, once the 2027 season rolls around, Reed will reinstate his membership under the Past Champion category, something that will afford him opportunities to play in certain – but not all – tournaments throughout that season.
HOWEVER, this is where the DP World Tour comes in.
Because, until August, Reed is, very cleverly, going to continue competing on the DP World Tour through the Honorary Lifetime Membership he received in 2019 following his win at the Masters the previous year. A fantastic way to keep his game tournament-sharp? Absolutely. But this is about more than just practice. For if Patrick ends the DP World Tour season in the top-10 on the ‘Race to Dubai’, he’ll wind up with a PGA Tour card and the highest possible eligibility that comes with that – a plan that the PGA Tour, themselves, have already validated.
And it’s that detail that is so important; this idea of the DP World Tour and the ‘Race to Dubai’ being this potential secret tunnel back into the ranks of the PGA Tour. Because, as I mentioned a few weeks ago in this article right here, when the ‘Returning Member Program’ was announced as a means through which to lure Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau back to the PGA Tour, I posited that the DP World Tour should use the prospect of LIV players potentially having nowhere to play should their contracts not be renewed or if the league shutters up as an opportunity to tempt some of the big names and young talent currently playing under the LIV flag to jump ship.
Admittedly, when I wrote that article, I merely considered that such an arrangement would work as something of a ‘quid quo pro’ for both sides. Those LIV players would have somewhere solid to ply their trade and work their way back up the world rankings, and, in return, the DP World Tour would benefit from a much-needed boost of star power for their roster, something that would potentially see a jump in ratings, tournament attendance, and purse sizes through increased sponsorship.
What didn’t occur to me, though, was the fact that you could, indeed, earn yourself a one-way ticket back to the PGA Tour with a top-10 finish in the ‘Race to Dubai’. But now that Patrick Reed has reminded me of it? I’m even more convinced that my original proposition is exactly what the DP World Tour should be exploring.
If they wanted to follow a similar path to the PGA Tour by excluding any new arrivals from the opportunity to receive any bonus money, Guy Kinnings and the DP World Tour could most certainly do that, yes. But, right now, there is a huge depth of talent sitting on the LIV roster – especially, young talent like David Puig, for one – that could massively bolster the DP World Tour as a product. And whilst there’s no arguing that the PGA Tour is, unequivocally, the biggest show in golf, with the global nature of the DP World Tour seeing stunning locations and different kinds of golf courses beamed into our televisions every single week, one can’t help but think that tournaments filled with a few more well-known names – each vying for ten precious spots come the end of the season – would most definitely boost the market appeal of the tour and see it really compete with the American equivalent across the pond.
Now, realistically, is all of that little more than a pipedream? The idea that, someday, LIV golfers who’ve grown tired of wandering in the wilderness of irrelevance might be welcomed onto the DP World Tour as part of a mutually beneficial scenario that sees the popularity of the tour kick on to another level?
Maybe, yeah.
But up until recently, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed both still played with LIV, now didn’t they?
So, as the old saying goes, “Never say never.”
