VIRGINIA WATER, England — The call that changed the landscape of international golf came only days after the 2026 Masters. When a report surfaced that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was on the cusp of withdrawing its funding for LIV, Ben Cowen, the DP World Tour’s chief tournament and operations officer, called Cho Minn Thant, CEO of the Asian Tour, to bolster their existing discussions about working together again.
“Cho and I had kept in communication throughout the past few years, and I always said to him, ‘The time will come, I hope, when we will work together again,’” Cowen told Golf Digest this week at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
“At the beginning of the year, it looked like things could change, then we met at Augusta and obviously it was only two days after Augusta that the news came out about PIF withdrawing their funding. It was a very easy discussion [with the Asian Tour] and I think he and his board respect the way that we approached it.”
The Asian Tour had, for five years, served as a feeder tour to LIV Golf, which invested $300 million into the circuit and created the lucrative International Series, whose Order of Merit offered spots on the LIV roster. The Asian Tour partnership also strengthened LIV’s successful bid for Official World Golf Ranking points.
Before LIV came along, the Asian and European tours had a history. They had co-sanctioned several events such as the historic Hong Kong Open since 1999.
“I know the potential out there [in Asia],” Cowen, a former tournament promoter in Asia, said. “I totally respected when Cho and his board had to make the decision to go with LIV [in 2021], and the deal they had was a very good deal for them and their members.”
But things changed. Following a meeting at the PGA Championship at Aronimink in May, a deal was finalized at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale between the European and Asian tours. The PGA Tour joined the agreement, and the three tours created a partnership that was first reported by Golf Digest in July. While LIV was seeking investment in its 2.0 league, losing the Asian Tour as its secondary circuit, which ran national opens that were involved in LIV’s future plans, was a significant blow.
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Under the new agreement, the Asian Tour Order of Merit winner will receive a card on the DP World Tour, while other top points earners will have access to Europe’s secondary HotelPlanner Tour. And when the DP World Tour announced its 2027 schedule earlier this week, it included two co-sanction tournaments, the Hong Kong Open and Deutsche Bank Singapore Open with three more expected in the future.
National opens were a battle ground that played an important role in the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Asian Tour re-organizing the ecosystem. LIV had been pitching a series of national opens around the world in addition to its team events. Those included the Australian Open, English Open and others. This was perceived as a swipe toward the DP World Tour, which oversees 17 national opens globally—and that number will grow as the 2027 schedule is filled.
It was added to the list of other headaches LIV had caused the DP World Tour since the former’s launch in 2022, watching LIV sign its players, including Henrik Stenson who was Ryder Cup Captain at the time, along with hosting tournaments such as LIV Golf Invitational London at Centurion Club, only 40 minutes’ from the DP World Tour headquarters at Wentworth, and treasured tournament venues such as Spain’s iconic Valderrama.
“Look, it was a constant battle for the last five years with [LIV] going after events that were on our schedule, going after venues that were on our schedule, going after sponsors that were part of our schedule as well,” Cowen said. “Everyone can say that's fine, that's business. We spent a lot of time talking to our partners and explaining to them why they should stay within our ecosystem as the global tour. The global TV distribution we have, the players that we have who have proven themselves when they get a card onto the PGA Tour. We were the ones that were providing the real value and that value has really been there for over 50 years as the European Tour, now the DP World Tour. There were a lot of rumors, that a lot of national opens, including Australia, were going to go to with LIV. It was great when we were able to announce [the Australian Open] continuing with us in partnership with the PGA Tour. That's taken a lot of hard work, a lot of time and effort. It's been a rocky road, but I feel we're in a really good place.”
The DP World Tour saw LIV Golf’s advances as hostile, yet allowed those LIV golfers who were also members of the European circuit to continue playing in their events—albeit with a sanction for competing in conflicting events. This year, the DP World Tour offered conditional releases to nine LIV golfers, including Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, for the 2026 season. That meant by committing to certain terms, the players could continue their DP World Tour membership without accruing fines and tournament suspensions for conflicting LIV starts.
Having spent four years seeing LIV target all areas of its business, there were plenty of eyebrows raised at the DP World Tour’s Wentworth headquarters when, in August, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said in a press conference about LIV 2.0 that the intention was to “complete, not compete. Golf doesn't need one tour to win and everyone else to lose.”
Added Cowen: “Yeah, it was frustrating to see [national opens being approached], but it's also nice to know that people actually value what you've been doing. They want to try and take the product that you've been building up for years, so there's a little bit of mixed emotions, but we've just got to concentrate on what we do. The LIV guys were obviously just trying to do what was best for their business at the time, and we'll continue to do that [ourselves]. But it's frustrating as well without a doubt, when everyone is now talking about trying to complete rather than compete. For us, it very much felt like a competition and a threat from outside and we had to do what we could to try and protect our business.
“Without a doubt, they were and are a competitor. I don’t think anyone could say otherwise. If they say they weren’t, that’s an interesting take on it.”
In describing the actions it took this summer to ward off LIV Golf, Ben Cowen, the DP World Tour’s chief tournament and operations officer, said it did so because the rival league "very much felt like a competition and a threat from outside and we had to do what we could to try and protect our business."
Zhe Ji
Now, several key national opens run by the Asian Tour are back under the auspices of the DP World Tour. The Hong Kong Open was important given it was among six national opens that Augusta National chose to award the winner a spot in the following year’s Masters. The R&A had already included those national opens among its Open Qualifying Series, meaning a varying allocation of places into the Open Championship were available from the Hong Kong Open, Australian Open, Singapore Open and many others.
The Hong Kong Open enjoyed co-sanctioning between Europe and Asia from 2001 to 2018, which paved the way for its list of winners to include high-profile names such as Aaron Rai, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Colin Montgomerie, Padraig Harrington and José María Olazábal.
“Those [national opens] didn't have the pathways [into majors] back when we co-sanctioned them previously,” Cowen said. “Even before that, our members had always said, particularly about Singapore and Hong Kong, ‘Can we get those back on the schedule?’ I always said, ‘Well, let's wait. Time will tell.’ We're really excited about Hong Kong and the Singapore Open. Deutsche Bank has come in as a title sponsor again, which is amazing. We haven't had them on our schedule as a title sponsor for a number of years. I think the partnership is back in full swing.”
With LIV Golf’s uncertain future, and bankruptcy filing, tour pros including several stars have been exploring their playing options on the DP World Tour and Asian Tour for the remainder of 2026 and 2027. Meaning tournament fields in Europe and Asia are likely to become stronger.
The DP World Tour’s trajectory is looking upwards, beginning with this week’s prestigious BMW PGA at Wentworth and a European home Ryder Cup at Ireland’s Adare Manor only 12 months away.
“I really hope so; we're so proud of what we've put together and I hope the fans will really get the benefit of that with some top players [hopefully] playing full schedules with us for the first time in a number of years,” Cowen said.
Adam Scott, who started his career on the European Tour and is now a player director on the PGA Tour’s Policy Board, said he would be delighted if this was a renaissance for the DP World Tour.
“I think there are moments in time where things happen and there's a rebalancing,” Scott told Golf Digest after a first-round 67 a Wentworth. “If it is the case that the DP [World Tour] kind of finds its legs again, I'd be thrilled. I have a soft spot for the DP World Tour. This is where I started. They gave me invites when I turned pro. I think it has a lot to offer. It has been a global tour [since] around the turn of the century when they started going to Asia and other parts and taking big names there. They've been doing it tough the last few years, and if it is a turning point, I'd be thrilled to see it.”