Shane Lowry has no doubt that the DP World Tour’s future is bright despite many observers pointing to an apparent imbalance when it comes to the strategic alliance with the PGA Tour.
Lowry was speaking on the No Laying Up Podcast in the wake of his latest big win, a narrow one-shot victory last Sunday at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Now living in Florida where his main focus is on the PGA Tour, Lowry has seen how a move across the Atlantic has benefitted his golf game and he believes that Europe’s stars getting more PGA Tour exposure can only be a good thing; especially should they follow his lead and also support the DP World Tour.
“What would I say to the boys on the DP World Tour? There’s no doubt about it, I grew up playing in Europe and my main goal was to play on the PGA Tour and to play in the majors and the big tournaments, but I always go back and support the DP World Tour when I can,” Lowry said.
“There’s 10 players who are going to get their PGA Tour card next year from the DP World Tour, that’s incredible.
“I played with Matthew Jordan the other day, he’s 26. I’m like, ‘the next ten years, you’ve got a great opportunity to get yourself to the PGA Tour’.
“The argument that some players have is that it’s going to take the top players away from the DP World Tour but it’s just going to make them better and then when we come back, we’re going to have better players playing our big tournaments.”
Lowry was part of the PGA Tour’s top player meeting in Delaware which brought about sweeping changes to America’s circuit, particularly when it comes to bringing the best players together more often and for more money from 2023.
The catalyst for these changes has been the emergence of the bottomless pockets of LIV Golf and just as Lowry declared his victory last Sunday as “one for the good guys”, he also believes that by supporting golf’s status quo, he’s preserving the sport of golf as we know it for generations to come.
“I was in that meeting with the lads in Delaware and I was conscious to say that ‘lads, we need to make sure we’re doing what’s right for golf, not what’s right for us because we’re not always going to be there but golf is’,” Lowry said.
“I do feel like what the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour have done for the last year and what they will do going forward is better for the game of golf than anything else.
“I’m very lucky to have the life I have through golf but it’s not my God given right to go off and be part of something that could bury those tours. It’s just up to me to hold my place there and pass it on to someone else when it’s my time to sail off into the sunset.”
Lowry also warned of the implications that a distorted market value placed on golfers, largely past their prime, who have moved to LIV Golf could have on the wider game.
“This thing of golfers feeling like they’re worth $100million contracts. We’re not the NFL, we’re not the NBA,” Lowry said.
“In my opinion we are a smaller sport than those and we do need to be very careful. I hate how divisive golf is at the minute and I think if we divide our top players, golf could be in trouble. That’s what I’m worried about.”
That said, having been part of the revolutionary player meeting in Delaware led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, Lowry believes that golf is on the right track and that DP World Tour members who may be feeling slightly left out of the reformation will soon reap the benefits too.
“I think what they’re doing is good but everyone has their own opinion,” Lowry said.
“I didn’t say too much in that meeting. Tiger Woods sitting there, Rory McIlroy sitting there. They’re the people who deserve to have an opinion on this, they’ve been at the top of the game for a long, long time.
“But I am confident that it’s going in the right direction and that they [DP World members] are going to be playing on a better tour for more money and hopefully that’s the case.”
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