Romain Langasque, who returns to competition this Thursday in Kenya after two weeks of rest, looks back on the recent reforms unveiled by the PGA Tour for 2024. For him, the players of the DP World Tour, a body which signed an alliance with the US Circuit, are in limbo.
Interview by Lionel VELLA
What is your opinion on the reforms announced by the PGA Tour regarding the 2024 calendar?
What I find quite hypocritical somewhere is that it gives a lot more credibility to the LIFE Golf. We remember that the PGA Tour was very hard on LIV Golf in relation to world points, the fact that there is no cut established and that the tournaments are played over three rounds. There, now, the PGA Tour announces to proceed a little in the same way. By the way, that’s what Phil Mickelson wanted to achieve with the PGA Tour for fifteen years. So it’s a bit of a special process. Afterwards, I understand that they want to reward the best but why didn’t they do it before? Why are they announcing these reforms, there, at the very beginning of March?
Could this call into question the alliance with the DP World Tour?
I think 2024 is going to be a test year. We will see what kind of category will inherit the ten players who will climb on the PGA Tour via the European Tour at the end of the season. What tournaments will they be able to play? How will all this evolve? Rory (McIlroy) would like some “Elevated Events” to be played in Europe… Will DP World Tour players then have access to these events? In fact, today, I have the impression that this alliance strategy is just blabla… Everything is written in black and white on a piece of paper, but it doesn’t add much for the moment. . It’s all very vague though. That’s why I hope that 2024 will be the year when this alliance will finally take shape.
The ten guys who will arrive on the PGA Tour, I compare them to those who climb on the DP World Tour via the PQ3. Of the ten, there may be one or two who will keep the card at the end of the year
Romain Langasque
Are you surprised by the current “radio silence” from DP World Tour leaders regarding these changes to the PGA Tour?
Keith Pelley (Editor’s note, the General Manager of the DP World Tour) has no say. Today, it’s the two or three best players in the world who run it in collaboration with Jay Monahan, the boss of the PGA Tour. I don’t think Keith Pelley really has anything to say, other than to tell us that it’s great, that money is going to be injected into the European Tour and that we will earn a better living. I saw thatEddie Pepperell had pushed a gueulant on Twitter. What he said sums it up perfectly. We just see that the top 50-60 of the PGA Tour will have access to $20 million tournaments. Unless you miss your season, this ensures you’ll be safe for life. You can no longer lose your card… In short, in the end, it’s a bit of a disguised LIV Golf system…
What future do you imagine for the ten players from the European Tour who will obtain their right to play on the PGA Tour 2024?
They are going to play big tournaments but it will be a bit like the difference we can make on the DP World Tour between a tournament like the Magical Kenya Open and one Rolex Series. You finish 9th in Kenya, you will take 50 points and 35,000 euros. You finish 20th in a Rolex Series, you’ll take 90,000 euros and 90 points. The difference is too great. Especially since there will be no cut. The ten guys who will arrive on the PGA Tour, I compare them to those who climb on the DP World Tour via the PQ3. Of the ten, there may be one or two who will keep the card at the end of the year. Others ? Basta! Already, it’s hard but this will make things even harder… Instead of having 120 places in a tournament, there will only be 60… In conclusion, and I repeat, I find that enough hypocritical of the PGA Tour to make announcements that ultimately support the Competitive Tour.
We imagine that this will be the subject of discussion this week in Kenya, right?
Yes, I think we’ll all talk about it. After all, we are all in the same situation. We don’t have a lot of information, we don’t really know what will be put in place. Or not…
Photo : Andrew Redington / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / Getty Images via AFP
