The Strategic Alliance expands to the east In a joint press release released on Monday, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Japan Golf Tour Organization announced the conclusion of a new agreement. Starting with the current season, the top three finishers on the Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit will receive full membership cards for the upcoming DP World Tour season.
Pga, statements
The agreement also provides for a collaboration on the strategic and commercial development plan, which will already materialize in the next season of the DP World Tour with the organization of the ISPS Handa Championship, set for next April at the PGM Ishioka Golf Club in Omitama.
There is also provision for access to the DP World Tour Q-School for players on the Asian Tour. And therefore the Strategic Alliance expands towards the east. It is true that the last time the PGA Tour addressed the Japan Golf Tour, the tones had been very different, and therefore this agreement certainly represents a soothing gesture.
But I believe that the move of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour is also and above all linked to the desire to improve, through the agreement with the Japan Golf Tour, their positioning in a chessboard that is becoming increasingly important.
On the other hand, the three cards guaranteed to JGT players will compensate, even if only partially, the presumable departure of the 10 players from the DP World Tour who, as we have seen, starting from the 2024 season will receive as many full cards from the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour is an organization that curates major professional golf tours in the United States. It is based in Ponte Vedra Beach, a suburb of Jacksonville, Florida. Its official name is written in all capital letters, i.e. “PGA TOUR”
The PGA Tour became its own organization in 1968, when it split from the PGA of America, which is now primarily an association of golf professionals, such as instructors and club managers. Tournament players first formed their own organization, the Association of Professional Golfers (APG).
Later, in 1968, the players abolished the APG and agreed to operate as the PGA “Tournament Players Division”, a fully autonomous division of the PGA, overseen by a new 10-member Tournament Policy Board. The name then officially changed to “PGA Tour” in 1975.
