DP World Tour Following PGA Tour in Guaranteeing Money to Players

DP World Tour players will receive $150,000 of guaranteed earnings for the first time next season, the league announced Thursday. The change follows a similar move made by the PGA Tour in August, which introduced an Earnings Assurance Program that will guarantee all exempt players $500,000, along with several other extensive changes made in the wake of LIV Golf's launch this year and endorsed by top players including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

While the money in both the DP World Tour’s and the PGA Tour’s new programs is not paid to all professionals upfront (the PGA Tour is giving rookies the $500,000 immediately), the change allows for a safety net at the end of the season for those who are eligible.

“I have always believed that it is an incredible accomplishment for any professional golfer to simply gain their playing rights on the DP World Tour and this new initiative recognizes and rewards that achievement,” said Keith Pelley, the DP World Tour CEO.

To be eligible for the $150,000 minimum earnings, players must be listed in categories 1–17 in the DP World Tour’s exemptions list, which currently includes roughly 230 players.

“Although we will never lose the magic of the meritocracy and purity of a performance-based structure, this now offers certainty of income to those players who have made it to the pinnacle of the professional game in Europe,” added Pelley.

The new Earnings Assurance Program was announced in conjunction with news of an increased overall prize fund of $144.2 million—$50 million more than the total fund in 2021. This pool excludes the four major championships and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

Additionally, the top eight players who lead the DP World Tour Rankings at the conclusion of the 2023 season will receive money from a bonus pool of $6 million, similar to the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program (PIP). The PGA Tour’s PIP was upgraded from $15 million to $100 million in August. This, along with the other significant alterations to the Tour’s structure, were first introduced in a players-only meeting in advance of the BMW Championship. Additional changes to the Tour’s organization include “elevated events” with bigger purses and guaranteed appearances by top players.

The DP World Tour attributed its ability to implement similar enhancements to its operational joint venture partnership with the PGA Tour that was announced in June.