If you’re like me, you struggled to find room on your plate on Thursday, between the bird and the mash and the green bean casserole. Thanksgiving dinner (and the subsequent seconds or thirds) is best when the meal becomes a mess of everything, touching every corner of the plate.
But maybe you also had trouble finding space at the table. Maybe you got pushed aside by Uncle Pete. Or maybe there was just a little more room at the Kids Table, so you went there. Thanksgiving often reminds us that there are more hungry people than placemats. Some people are banished to the TV tables in the living room. It’s exactly what’s happening in professional golf.
The subdued but no less important news of the week came from a non-Thanksgiving part of the world – London – where the DP World Tour made clear that it will reduce the number of full status memberships offered for 2027, following a similar path recently charted by the PGA Tour. The European version of the Korn Ferry Tour, known as the Hotel Planner Tour, will also offer fewer spots for graduates to take the next step in professional golf.
These moves mimic the same controversial treatment by the PGA Tour, which reduced the number of full cards from 125 to 100 this season. You’ve probably heard all about that, so why worry about this DP World Tour news? What does it tell us?
The measure reiterates that just two or three years ago there were too many free seats at the dining table. With too many spots available on the game’s biggest tours, and in order to streamline tournament operations, raise the stakes and further benefit the best players, a few placemats had to be removed.
For years, the DP World Tour has offered full status membership to 110 players from last year’s Race to Dubai rankings, the equivalent of the FedEx Cup. But in the future, that number will now be only 100. The feeder tour below will reduce the number of graduates from 20 to 15. All of this serves as a cinch for entry to ensure that anyone who has earned full status can absolutely get into any tournament they want for the upcoming season.
The biggest professional golf fans will have remembered that players with full PGA Tour status who graduated from the DP World Tour or the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024 were largely left on the outside, watching popular spring events like the WM Phoenix Open. The unintended message sent to these graduates was: Congratulations on joining the PGA Tour, now wait your turn until the tee time. Guy Kinnings, CEO of DP World Tour, discovered that his tour was encountering the same problem.
“We have been working on it in small working groups throughout the year,” Kinnings said Martin Dempster van The Scot“and if you can give the players who have earned their playing privileges through whatever route a greater level of scheduling certainty and more balanced opportunities, then that’s what we’re aiming for.”
Players on the PGA Tour saw that last week when the top 100 card-carrying members were finalized at the RSM Classic. Those on the outside looking in won’t find it difficult to access events, but they have given up complete autonomy over determining their schedule. They have to assess how many players ranked higher than them want to play in the Valspar Championship, for example, before they know they can add it to their schedule. The same now applies to the DP World Tour and its popular events such as the Irish Open.
The biggest problem for some is not so much a problem for everyone. With less guaranteed for the players on the margins, some will entertain other options. Victor Perez, who left the PGA Tour in 2025, recently committed to LIV Golf for his 2026 season. That won’t be a problem for the DP World Tour, especially since Perez will maintain his membership there, but Perez noted how he has the goalposts shifted on the PGA Tour. And to some extent he is absolutely right. Progolf in general has certainly shrunk the size of the dining tables, while continuing to increase the amount of food on each dining table. This all means you better play well enough to guarantee yourself a seat.
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