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Golf Enabler
Enabler GOLF
WHAT WILL DP WORLD’S NAMING-RIGHTS SPONSORSHIP OF THE EUROPEAN TOUR BRING BEYOND 48 SCHEDULED EVENTS IN 27 COUNTRIES THIS WRAP-AROUND SEASON? GREATER CROSS-TOUR COLLABORATION, OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION WITH GOLF SAUDI AND THE ASIAN TOUR, GREATER FOCUS ON THE RACE TO DUBAI SEASON-DECIDER AND, LONGER-TERM, PRO GOLF TO AFRICA IF THE SOCIALLY-CONSCIOUS PORTS OPERATOR AND GLOBAL TRADE ENABLER GETS ITS WISH.
The power play for professional golf was bound to test existing relationships as tradition-challenging strategies were drawn up and sides taken. So it has proved with the European Tour, now in a strategic partnership with the PGA Tour, publically declaring itself “fierce competitors” with the once friendly but now Saudi-aligned Asian Tour.
As a result, the European Tour has decided not to renew a strategic relationship with its Asian counterpart dating back to 2016. It has taken cosanctioned events (there were as many as 12 on Asian soil in 2006) and tour card and Q-School exemptions for Asian Tour players off the table and informed its members that any request to play on the Asian Tour must now be made in writing and the requested releases “reviewed” on a case-bycase basis.
It comes at a momentous time for both tours. Each has recently secured their biggest ever sponsorship deals: the European Tour a 10-year deal with the Dubai-based DP World understood to be worth $400 million, the Asian Tour a potentially game-changing, decade-long $200 million investment from Saudi-funded LIV Golf Investments which will see 10 new events bolted onto its schedule from 2022.
While the Saudi International has switched from the European Tour to become the Asian Tour’s flagship, $5 million season-opener, the now DP World Tour has put up the $2 million Ras Al Khaimah Championship in the same Feb. 3-6 time-slot. In other words, little ground is been given.
With close political, economic and cultural connections between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, some speculated that the respective sponsors would be caught in the maelstrom, but that hasn’t been the case.
In an exclusive interview with Golf Digest Middle East special correspondent Joy Chakravarty, DP World’s Chief Communications Officer Daniel van Otterdijk insisted the two organisations maintained excellent relations.
“The relations between DP World and Saudi Golf Federation are very cordial. We speak almost on a bi-weekly basis on various activities that are going on,” said van Otterdijk.
“There is work to be done and discussion to be had about how we move forward onto greater collaboration. But I can promise you there hasn’t been any discord.
“Everybody involved in the game, from Jay Monaghan (PGA Tour Commissioner) to Keith at the European Tour, to our friends at Saudi Golf, the Asian Tour and ourselves, we all have one focus – and that is to make the game greater, to provide greater excitement for the fans and attract more players.
“I think both Saudi Golf and us, we’d love to see a winner from this region, whether it be the UAE, Saudi Arabia or any other countries in the GCC.”
DP World has operational presence across 66 countries, 137 locations and all five continents, with Asia one of their major markets. That makes the standoff between the European Tour and the Asian Tour less than idea although van Otterdijk is hopeful of a thawing of relations and has not ruled out the possibility of the two sponsors working together in golf in the future.
“I think what Golf Saudi are doing is fantastic for the game. I do know that the people involved are passionate about the sport and have fantastic ideas about how to develop golf. I have no doubt that in the coming years, those thoughts and ideas will come together on a global stage,” said van Otterdijk.
“I also have absolutely no doubt about the future of golf in any part of the world, including Asia. All the tours are working together and collaborating for the good of the game.
“We have had good discussions with our friends at Golf Saudi. I know the media always loves to make negative things out of it. I can tell you that isn’t the case. What they’re doing by investing in the Asian Tour is fantastic. And we look forward to working with them in the future.”
While van Otterdijk was trying to clear a few misconceptions on the sidelines of the DP World Tour Championship, the 11th hour withdrawal of world No.1 Jon Rahm was an inevitable line of questioning. As title sponsor, surely they were miffed?
“No. Absolutely not. And let me tell you why,” he added. “First and foremost, Jon is a champion player. He sent us a very long and detailed email outlining why he wasn’t coming. And we appreciate that. That tells you a lot about Jon as a player, and as a person for that matter, and the respect he has for both the European Tour and for DP World. We look forward to having him back with us next year.
▶ rebadged
ambition
At the DP World Tour launch were (from L to R) the European Tour group’s Guy Kinnings (Deputy CEO), Keith Pelley (CEO) and David Williams (Chairman) and DP World’s Yuvraj Narayan (Group Chief Financial, Strategy and Business Officer), Abdulla Bin Damithan (CEO and Managing Director of DP World UAE) and Daniel van Otterdijk (Chief Communications Officer) .
“These past few months have been difficult for many people, not just on the golfers. It’s been a big challenge for the players to live in these [pandemic enforced] bubbles, which is not easy when you’re on tour for 30 weeks. It has been an enormous strain on not just the people who run the tour, but also the players. So, I think we need to be mindful of that. So, I think from our perspective, we’re grateful for the players that are here.”
While DP World is planning to charter new territories as part of their sponsorship and reach at least 27 countries with the re-branded DP World Tour, van Otterdijk said the status of DP World Tour Championship will remain sacrosanct and every effort will be made to make it the premier championship in world golf. That would include overtures to get the PGA Tour involved.
“Your colleague at Golf Digest recently wrote that the importance of the DP World Tour Championship is waning over the past few years for some of the top players,” said van Otterdijk.
“Perhaps that is one of the reasons why we wanted to relook at this, and we looked at this as part of the partnership. We think that the seasonending tournament totally needs to build greater relevance. Now, money attracts many people, and I’m sure the players will forgive me for saying this, but we also want to create a greater sense of prestige for the DP World Tour Championship [the tournament will become the first $10 million event on the European Tour next year].
“So, we also want to work with the PGA Tour to ensure that this becomes the centrepiece, if you like, for both tours in the coming years. And that’s one of the things that we’ve talked to both tours about is that we’d like to see greater relevance for players on both tours to be able to come here.”
It is an oft-repeated mantra in business that no sponsorship is sustainable if it does not have clear marketing objectives. So, what prompted DP World to elevate its stake in the European Tour?
“The evolution of DP World in the last decade and a half has been, by any standard, staggering. From being a port operator, which essentially entails taking containers off ships, and on to other modes of transport, to add ways to being an integrated logistics provider, is a massive transformation,” said van Otterdijk.
“As we grew in the last decade, into a 137-location and a 66-country global conglomerate, just having one golf tournament in the year did not meet our requirements. So, the natural evolution was to widen our partnership and the European Tour came up with a terrific proposal.
“We were moving from being a very deep B2B organisation, which people thought had no social relevance, to a very, very relevant in the B2C environment, right with our acquisitions and development of digital platforms such as DuBuy.com.
“We really want to build our brand and the markets that are relevant to us. So, the visibility is very important, why we are putting our marketing dollars here. And secondly, to use this as a platform to engage with our traditional customers and some of our new customers in new areas of logistics supply chain.”
Otterdijk said there is a definite plan of taking the DP World Tour to new golf destinations.
“Because golf is so popular in Asia, in countries like Japan, Korea, India and China, that’s obvious places we’d want to go. Europe is already strong on the Tour. Africa is one place we’d like to be more visible. There are a good 50 countries in Africa and you don’t see golf as a mainstream sport. It is still seen as elitist, which is a tag we want to lose. We want it to be as inclusive as we possibly can.
“We have a massive footprint in Africa and we believe in the future prosperity of the continent. We think trade enablement, providing trade pathways and trade corridors is the most sustainable way to develop for Africa, and we think the game of golf can play a part in that solution.” – additional reporting by kent gray
▶ collaborator Daniel van Otterdijk: “We think that the seasonending tournament needs to build greater relevance.”
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