LIV Golf’s 2027 Ban Plan Sparks Panic in the Locker Room

The DP World Tour is actively negotiating an extended Strategic Alliance deal with Brian Rolapp and the PGA Tour ahead of massive structural calendar shifts set for 2028.

Guy Kinnings, the DP World Tour’s chief executive, confirmed the talks in an exclusive interview with The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster.

“Brian Rolapp’s been very clear,” Kinnings said.

“He has said he wants to extend the Strategic Alliance and that’s exactly the goal that I have. We’re working on it right now.”

Rolapp is the PGA Tour’s president of media and the executive leading the tour’s commercial strategy.

The current Strategic Alliance between the two tours dates back to 2020, when the PGA Tour acquired equity in the DP World Tour’s media business and secured a seat on its board.

Kinnings’ comments come as the DP World Tour prepares to enforce a hardline membership policy for 2027 that will ban players who sign up for LIV Golf’s second iteration.

Players who join LIV 2.0 will not be allowed to compete on the DP World Tour, Kinnings said, calling it a “straight choice.”

That policy has rattled LIV golfers, with players like Lucas Herbert acknowledging the backlash awaiting returning rebels.

But the ban is only part of a larger strategy Kinnings is pursuing.

The bigger picture involves a complete reshaping of the DP World Tour’s schedule beginning in 2028.

Kinnings revealed that the DP World Tour is looking at all options, including a new focus on Rolex Series events and national opens, and even bringing in capital investment to bolster tournaments.

“All options are on the table,” Kinnings said.

The driving force behind the change is the PGA Tour’s own restructuring.

Starting in 2028, the PGA Tour will operate from February to August, a compressed season that leaves the autumn months open.

Kinnings sees that gap as an opportunity for the DP World Tour to become golf’s global circuit during that period.

“In 2028, with the PGA Tour operating from February to August, that gives us an amazing opportunity from September through to the end of January almost without anything else going on, to truly shine a light on international golf as golf’s global Tour,” Kinnings said.

That statement signals a major shift in the DP World Tour’s identity.

For decades, the European-based tour has operated as a secondary circuit running parallel to the PGA Tour’s calendar.

The 2028 plan would reposition it as the dominant tour during the PGA Tour’s off-season.

Kinnings framed the move as a survival measure.

He said LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed breakaway league, spent over $7 billion with one of its stated aims being to “destroy the DP World Tour.”

“I have heard that from so many different people they talked to, who I have known for over 30 years within the game and who I trust implicitly,” Kinnings said.

“Clearly when you are faced with statements like that, and then people then ask why we are doing what we are doing with our membership and invite policy for 2027, then I think the answer becomes pretty obvious.”

Kinnings said the DP World Tour has a duty to its members to protect the tour against an entity that sought its destruction.

“Our Tour that has been in existence for over 50 years and it stands for everything that is good, right and proper in the game is worth fighting for and that is precisely what we have done and what we will continue to do,” he said.

The financial picture Kinnings painted is one of resilience.

He pointed to “over a billion dollars currently contracted across the Tour” in sponsorship as evidence of the tour’s stability.

Kinnings also criticized the economics of LIV Golf, calling its prize funds “artificially high” and built on “an entirely unsustainable economic model.”