Former Open champion Ian Baker-Finch thinks the ongoing battle between the PGA Tour and LIV has presented the DP World Tour with a fantastic opportunity to become the premier international golf tour outside of America.
“I believe there’s a place now for the DP World Tour to become a ‘world tour’ that represents all of the countries and great players around the world,” said the Australian.
“I think they have the opportunity to create a real true ‘world tour’. The PGA Tour wants to be the leader in world golf – and it is, it’s the Tour that we all want to get to, it’s the pinnacle.
“But I believe they will just stay US-centric because the top players, especially the American players or those that live in America, they want to go home on Sunday night, and they don’t want to travel around the world.
“They want their cake and eat it too, in my opinion. I don’t think the PGA Tour will ever become a true ‘world tour’.
“It’s the DP World Tour that has a better opportunity to achieve that, put it that way.
“The first two events of the DP World Tour season were in Australia and Rory McIlroy played the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne. They’re going to play in South Africa, then into Asia until the weather gets better in Europe. It already is kind of a ‘world tour’.”
The 65-year-old is making a point that many supporters of the DP World Tour have been saying for years.
Long before LIV was offering huge sums of money to sign players, the circuit formerly known as the European Tour was breaking new ground all over the globe with an international schedule that took golf to new countries and regions.
The 2026 DP World Tour schedule visits 25 countries on five different continents. Every time LIV announces it is visiting a new country, the DP World Tour has already been there – and usually for a long time.
Entering its fifth season, it’s fair to say LIV hasn’t yet gained the traction in terms of viewing figures and genuine interest in most of the events in line with the billions of dollars that have been spent on it.
The 1991 Open winner doesn’t believe the team element – one of the key cornerstones of the LIV proposition – is working.
“Team golf, if they’re all international teams like the Rippers being Australian, or they were all strong teams like Jon Rahm’s and they were all competitive, I kind of get it. But they aren’t,” Baker-Finch said.
“If LIV didn’t have a benefactor willing to throw a billion dollars a year at it, it wouldn’t be the success that it is.
“Although some events are very successful, like the one in Australia, it’s just not the product, and I think a lot of the players there are probably regretting the loss of competition in a strong environment.”
While Baker-Finch doesn’t believe LIV is really working, he isn’t sold on the PGA Tour’s introduction of Signature Events either.
“The PGA Tour now has eight events where they only have 72 players playing for $20 million,” he said.
“They’ve kind of followed LIV – not from the fact they wanted team golf, but they wanted fewer players so better players were always playing against each other to give a better product, apparently.
“Although they’ve yet to prove that’s a good idea to me.”
Despite his misgivings about the PGA Tour’s Signature events and LIV in general, he feels there’s a lot more to be positive about and the sport is heading in the right direction.
“Golf is booming, especially since COVID. Golf is in such a great place around the world,” he continued.
“It’s exciting, it’s fun and it’s athletic. Women’s golf as well has gone through the roof.
“I love that fact being a father and grandfather (to girls). The Tours just need to figure out the best way forward in how we’re going to represent the game.”
The Australian was speaking to Golf Monthly following the launch of his autobiography, To hell and Back.
((Image credit: Amazon))
Why did he choose to do his biography now with Geoff Saunders – and what did he learn in the process?
“I’ve had many journos and authors over the years say, ‘let’s do your book’, and I always said I don’t need to. Geoff Saunders said you need to chronicle your story and your life, even if it’s just for your grandkids, family and friends. I trusted Geoff because he’d written a couple of good books on Peter Thomson and Sir Bob Charles, and had a lot of information already on me from those two books. He basically convinced me at the St Andrews Open in 2022. I see it as a great book about the ‘80s and ‘90s era of golf – he’s placed me in the centre, but it’s not just me. The process definitely helped me. It allowed me to look back on my career in a positive way. It was cathartic and I enjoyed going through old photos and great memories with Jenny and the kids.”
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