The Asian Tour announced a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. This move effectively ends the Asian Tour’s role as a second tier for LIV Golf, establishing new pathways for members to compete on European and American circuits through 2029.
Shifting Alliances and the End of the LIV Partnership
The landscape of professional golf shifted significantly this week as the Asian Tour realigned with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. For years, the Asian Tour served as a critical feeder system for LIV Golf, most notably through the International Series
—a collection of tournaments launched in 2022 that featured purses of up to $2 million, according to ESPN. LIV Golf had invested $300 million into the Asian Tour to build this structure, using it to facilitate the promotion and relegation of players.
That dynamic is now effectively severed. Golf Digest reported that senior sources confirmed the negotiations reached their conclusion during the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. The new agreement ensures that the Asian Tour will no longer provide the secondary-tier infrastructure that previously supported LIV’s Official World Golf Ranking accreditation and player acquisition.
Pathways to the DP World and PGA Tours
Under the terms of the new agreement, which remains in effect through 2029, Asian Tour members gain a direct route to higher-level competition. Starting in the 2027 season, the top performers on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit will earn playing privileges on the DP World Tour. From there, players can secure one of 10 available cards for the PGA Tour, a mechanism established by the existing Strategic Alliance between the PGA and DP World tours.
Asian Tour CEO Cho Minn Thant emphasized that the decision was driven by a need for long-term stability for his members, particularly given the financial uncertainty surrounding LIV Golf. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the primary backer of the rival league, has indicated it will cease funding LIV at the end of the current season.
“Pathways to different tours are very important for our members. We’ve got the Asian Development Tour, which feeds into the main tour. We’ve got several co-sanctions with other tours as well. I think over the last five years, our membership has become a little bit more cosmopolitan. There are a lot more foreigners playing in Asia now and they enjoy coming to Asia, but we also need a pathways to progress onto bigger tours.”
Cho Minn Thant, Asian Tour CEO
Strategic Integration and Co-sanctioned Events
The collaboration revives a historical relationship between the tours. The DP World Tour and Asian Tour had previously co-sanctioned events between 2016 and 2021, with a history of cooperation dating back to 1999. The new deal mandates at least two co-sanctioned tournaments between the two entities for the 2027, 2028, and 2029 seasons.
Christian Hardy, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of international, framed the move as an effort to solidify a global ecosystem. Through our Strategic Alliance with the DP World Tour, we have worked to build a more connected global golf ecosystem, and we are excited to welcome the Asian Tour into that effort,
Hardy said. He added that the goal was to ensure the PGA Tour remains the true north star
in men’s professional golf, filling a geographic gap that the Asian Tour was uniquely positioned to bridge.
Consequences for LIV Golf’s Future
The loss of the Asian Tour affiliation significantly reduces LIV Golf’s options for expansion and talent development. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil had reportedly sought to tie the league to prominent national opens on the Asian Tour as part of a proposal to attract new investors for 2027. However, with the Asian Tour now firmly within the PGA and DP World Tour orbit, those national championships are largely unavailable for LIV’s use.
While LIV Golf retains the ability to host its own qualifying school, it now operates without the secondary tier that provided a steady stream of talent and international legitimacy. For the Asian Tour, the transition marks a return to the traditional golf establishment, prioritizing longevity and defined pathways over the high-stakes, but uncertain, financial model that defined the last four years.
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