Late in 2020, the Premier Golf League (PGL), a breakaway tour led by British lawyer Andrew Gardiner, asked the DP World Tour to team up. At the time, the European Tour was losing a lot of money because of COVID-19, which forced it to cancel or delay several big events. But the DP World Tour chose the PGA Tour instead. Daily Drive’s Bob Harig argues that while the deal has helped the DP World Tour and its players, the PGA Tour is still paying for its European partner’s losses.
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“Look, you’ve got to also remember the time frame coming out of COVID, the DP World Tour was really, really in distress,” Harig told Gary Williams on the 5 Clubs Show. “The PGA Tour model, for all the talk over these last few years, it’s really been amazing how it has worked over the years. For the most part, every purse is covered through sponsorship, title sponsorship, and the TV media rights deals. And those two entities alone bring in more money than what pays for the purse.
“That’s how the tour operates. The extra money is what they use to do all the things, the other things they do, pay people, have an office, all the stuff that they do. Well, on the DP World Tour side, it’s pretty clear that if they have a $3 million purse, the sponsor probably isn’t even paying $3 million. And obviously, their rights numbers aren’t going to be as robust as the PGA Tour’s. They don’t go to as many places, [or as many] big places. Their base in Europe isn’t as big as the US.”
The strategic alliance with the PGA Tour, signed in late 2020 and expanded in 2022, gave the DP World Tour a much-needed financial boost. It lifted prize funds across the schedule, with purses set to rise every year, and made it easier to land top players. The deal also led to more co-sanctioned events, which brought PGA Tour stars to DP World Tour tournaments and gave the circuit a higher profile.
Indeed, the PGA Tour sent more than $77 million to the PGA European Tour, the body that runs the DP World Tour, in 2025. That sum came through the strategic alliance and was a sharp jump from the roughly $28 million handed over in 2024. The money is labeled an Annual Investment Payment (AIP). That same year, DP World Tour prize money hit a record $153 million.
But the PGA Tour wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of its heart. In part, the aim was to counter the growing threat of LIV Golf. As part of the agreement, the PGA Tour initially received a 15% stake in European Tour Productions. In exchange for the Annual Investment Payments, the PGA Tour’s stake is scheduled to increase to 40% by the end of 2027. Despite this investment, the DP World Tour continues to post operating losses.
The PGA European Tour group’s revenue slipped from $469.9 million in 2024 to $457.7 million in 2025, a drop of about $12 million. Media rights took the biggest hit, falling by more than $57 million, as the Tour settled for shorter deals while LIV Golf shook up the men’s game.
There is a catch, though. The PGA Tour’s AIP runs out in 2027, the same year a break clause in the alliance agreement kicks in. The alliance itself technically runs until 2035, but that clause gives the PGA Tour a chance to renegotiate the funding model, which could mean less money for the DP World Tour.
Still, it is unclear whether the PGA Tour will actually pull back, and that hinges on talks over the alliance beyond 2027. So far the numbers show it bankrolling a European circuit whose revenue keeps slipping, so a new deal will show if the money continues, shrinks, or comes with stricter terms.