Delayed by the June declaration that the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund are discussing the possibility of joining forces, the DP World Tour has belatedly announced its 13-month long 2023-24 schedule. In all, the former European Tour will be made up of 44 events in 24 countries across five continents, underlining the circuit’s long-held claim to be golf’s most international tour. In all, players will be competing for a record prize fund of $148.5 million, which does not include the purses from the four major championships.

Those bland figures only disguise some sweeping internal changes, however. Between November 2023 and August 2024, the Race to Dubai will feature five Global Swings followed by a month-long Back 9 in September and October before two DP World Tour playoff events in November. What will not change is the presence of five Rolex Series events — January’s Dubai Desert Classic, the Genesis Scottish Open in July, September’s BMW PGA Championship and, both in November, the Abu Dhabi Championship and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Announcing the new look 2024 DP World Tour schedule ? pic.twitter.com/qAvAwAbvSo

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) August 14, 2023

The five Global Swings each have their own title and share of the season.

The Opening Swing will take up November and December this year and comprise six tournaments (including three national championships), starting with the Australian PGA Championship and ending with the Mauritius Open.

After the Christmas and New Year holidays, the seven-event International Swing will begin with a new tournament, the Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek and continue through the Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa in early March.

The Singapore Classic is the first of seven events in the Asian Swing that, somehow, includes both the Masters and the PGA Championship.

The European Swing begins with the Soul Open in Belgium in late May and concludes with the BMW International Open in early July. Again illogically, the US Open is part of this phase.

One week before the Open Championship at Royal Troon, the Genesis Scottish Open kicks off the Closing Swing that runs through the Danish Golf Championship in late August.

Points accrued in the major championships will count on the Race to Dubai but not in the Swing Rankings that will each pay $200,000 to their own champions. At the conclusion of the Global Swings phase, a further $1 million bonus pool will then be shared among the leading 10 players on the Race to Dubai (who have played a minimum of eight regular Global Swing events outside the major championships and Genesis Scottish Open).

The five different swings will also offer qualification into the first three Rolex Series events.

The leading member (not otherwise exempt) from the Opening Swing will qualify for the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. The leading member (not otherwise exempt) from each of the International Swing, Asian Swing and European Swing will qualify for the Genesis Scottish Open. And the leading member (not otherwise exempt) from the Closing Swing will qualify for the tour’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

At the end of all of the above, the tour will move into Phase Two, the Back 9 which will begin with theBritish Masters and end with a late-October tournament still to be confirmed. In addition to exempt DP World Tour members, the leading 15 non-members from the top 70 on the FedEx Cup will be eligible to play in these events and qualify for the DP World Tour Championship. And the top 110 players on the Race to Dubai Rankings at the conclusion of this phase in October will earn their DP World Tour cards for 2025 while the top 70 qualify for Phase Three, the DP World Tour Playoffs.

That third and final phase will comprise the two final Rolex Series events of the season: the Abu Dhabi Championship at Yas Links and DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates. At its conclusion, the leading 10 players on the Race to Dubai will share a $6 million bonus pool.

Amid this plethora of changes and restructuring, one exemption will remain in place and couple of others will be added.

As is the case at the end of the current 2023 season, the top 10 DP World Tour members on the final 2024 Race to Dubai Rankings (not otherwise exempt) will earn PGA Tour cards for the 2025 season.

The leading DP World Tour member who earns the first of the 10 PGA Tour exemptions for 2024 via the current 2023 Race to Dubai Rankings, will also be exempt into the Players Championship and the Charles Schwab Challenge in 2025.

And finally, the leading finisher from the current 2023 Race to Dubai, not otherwise exempt through the top 50 of the 2022-23 FedEx Cup standings, will earn a spot into two PGA Tour signature events in 2024: the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational at Riviera.

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With the final of the four majors concluded at St Andrews last week — despite it being mid-July — attentions are already naturally turn to the season-enders on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, as the two campaign-long competitions begin to take shape.

On the PGA Tour, the race for the FedEx Cup title continues as the season hits the home stretch. The standings will help determine who keeps their PGA Tour cards for next term and who’ll be eligible for the FedEx Cup Playoffs come August.

World No. 1 and Master champ Scottie Scheffler leads the standings, but newly crowned Open Championship winner Cameron Smith has vaulted into second spot thanks to his success at St Andrews. Runner-up Cameron Young is also a significant mover, climbing to 13th place in the ranks.

Over on the DP World Tour, despite coming up short at the Open, Rory McIlroy jumped back to the top of the rankings as focus begins to shift to Dubai and the Rolex Series season finale — the DP World Tour Championship on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. The 33-year-old Northern Irishman leapfrogged Will Zalatoris and US Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick to the summit of the DPWT’s season-long points race.

Norway’s Viktor Hovland, playing in the final group with McIlroy, finished tied fourth with Englishman Tommy Fleetwood on 14-under to jump from eighth to fourth in the Rankings.

FedEx Cup standings

RANK: PLAYER, STARTS, POINTS
1: Scottie Scheffler, 22, 3,556
2: Cameron Smith, 16, 2,335
3: Sam Burns, 21, 2,275
4: Xander Schauffele, 18, 2,153
5: Rory McIlroy, 13, 2,104
6: Patrick Cantlay, 16, 1,900
7: Justin Thomas, 18, 1,783
8: Hideki Matsuyama, 18, 1,697
9: Will Zalatoris, 20, 1,600
10: Matt Fitzpatrick, 17, 1,596

DP World Tour standings

RANK: PLAYER, STARTS, POINTS
1: Rory McIlroy, 7, 2,993.1
2: Will Zalatoris, 6, 2,661.5
3: Matt Fitzpatrick, 7, 2,579.3
4: Viktor Hovland, 8, 2,415.2
5: Ryan Fox, 15, 2,176.0
6: Thomas Pieters, 11, 2,173.0
7: Justin Thomas, 7, 2,051.6
8: Adrian Meronk, 15, 2,032.0
9: Tommy Fleetwood, 10, 1,571.5
10: Pablo Larrazabal, 13, 1,308.6

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