The European Tour is no more… at least as far as its title is concerned. The tour announced sweeping changes coming into effect in 2022, chief among them rebranding itself as the DP World Tour.
While the newly minted DPWT will pay homage to its history, the fact is that 24 of the 47 events scheduled for 2022 take place outside of Europe. As a result, tour officials felt a more “global” brand would be key to growing events and attracting new sponsors.
In 2020 the tour was ravaged by the effects of COVID, and was forced to cancel several stops on its schedule. In total, the tour handed out $70M worth of purses in 2020, and $104M in 2021. With the new rebrand, and subsequent major investment by DP World (a global logistics company based out of Dubai), the tour will see purses jump to north of $200M in 2022.
News of the rebrand comes on the heels of the announcement that a new company calling itself LIV Golf (backed by Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund) would be headed by Greg Norman. The company will reportedly put on 10 new events on the Asian Tour, though dates and locations have yet to be announced.
The growth of the game in the Middle East has caused a flood of new money to come into the game in recent years. As a result, more and more high profile events have begun taking place in non-traditional markets such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia.
Players such as Rory McIlroy were quick to praise the rebrand, calling any kind of growth good for the game. In addition to changing its name, the DPWT will focus on an increased partnership with the PGA Tour in coming years, allowing for DPWT tour members to compete in PGA sanctioned events and vice versa.
The European Tour will officially change its name in 2022 which will mark the 50th year since the tour’s inception.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner