At this week’s Valspar Championship in Tampa, BBC golf writer Bob McIntyre may have given the most accurate account of Keith Pelley’s time as DP World Tour leader.
During Pelley’s nine years as the leader of the Wentworth-based organization, his most contentious contribution was the reason the Scot was competing on those Floridian fairways.
Furthermore, MacIntryre’s choice to make fun of US fans by using caddie Mike Burrows’ bib and the Ryder Cup outcome from the previous year’s game was revealing. It brought to mind what was maybe Pelley’s greatest achievement, the organization of that historic event in Rome in September.
This is the 60-year-old’s last week in control of the European tour before he returns to his home country of Canada to take over as general manager of Toronto’s four major sports teams.
He was previously aware of startup intentions for a golf super league when he moved here in 2015. Pelley was also aware of how difficult it was for his new employers to compete with the US-based PGA Tour.
His original goal was to stop what had long since become an inevitable migration across the pond by making the European Tour a competitive option for the continent’s top performers.
He was bold and aggressive. A small person with a vision to turn the little guys from Europe into a look that could compete with the big males in the United States, dressed in gaudy, colorful eyewear.
It was an admirable goal, and shortly after, there was a Rolex Series of elite competitions with larger prize pools and better media attention. However, the talent that was migrating over the Atlantic was unabated by these competitions.
Pelley was constrained in his efforts to modernize golf by the fact that the tour’s membership was ultimately responsible for his actions.
This implied a wide range of objectives and an innate resistance to change unless it was certain to benefit each member individually, which he had to persuade.
There were many members with varying egos to appease and different career levels, making it a challenging atmosphere. It was nearly hard to keep everyone happy.
Pelley did, however, succeed in quickening the tempo of play throughout his trip. Certain ranges featured music, and tournaments had a more contemporary vibe as a result of the financial opportunities presented by improving fan experiences.
Pelley was aware that the PGA Tour was unbeatable, and his ultimate goal was to work with the US to create a global tour. However, there were also proposals from the Premier Golf League, the new breakaway, to take into account.
The PGL promised a new and incredibly profitable vision for the game, along with substantial financial support. Joining forces with them might have been the first step toward creating a company that could have seriously competed with Jay Monahan’s US tour.
However, Monahan was as eager to promote closer ties with Europe. Pelley finally decided to go with the US Tour after giving two top executives instructions to do a thorough report on both camps.
Despite all of their rhetoric, PGL had no players signed up, so the safer course was to form a strategic agreement with the PGA Tour for 2020. Furthermore, Monahan already has the top names in Europe, including Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy.
The agreement was also required to support the DP World Tour’s finances, which had been severely and drastically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PGL was dealt a severe blow by this decision as well, as Monahan was adamantly against taking on any more players in the professional golf scene. Furthermore, Pelley was unable to collaborate with other organizations due to the agreement with the PGA Tour.
Subsequently, Saudi Arabia aggressively joined the market. Due to its sportwashing strategies, The Kingdom adopted PGL’s model and, when the LIV tour arrived in 2022, completely transformed the men’s game.
Pelley had no choice but to follow Monahan’s lead. Many people believe that the Canadian should have “done the deal” with Saudi Arabia, and many well-known and enduring European figures who joined LIV right away shared this opinion.
Pelley could, however, credit to having guaranteed the future for each and every one of his surviving members, and that, after all, was his top concern. Pelley also inked a huge contract to rename his circuit the DP World Tour.
In June 2022, he further cemented his ties with the PGA Tour by assiduously lobbying to create a formalized route for his ten most successful players—who were not already exempt—to obtain coveted tour cards in the US.
This year, this highly contested policy became a reality, which is why MacIntyre spent last week in Florida.
The 27-year-old from Oban participated in what is still considered to be the greatest edition of this renowned match because he was a member of the winning Ryder Cup squad.
Pelley organized the match in Italy, and at first, there was a lot of doubt about that audacious decision. However, a fantastic week at Marco Simone was an overwhelming triumph; golf has never seemed more significant.
And that’s how he always saw the game being developed.
In addition, he had secured prize money for the tour’s medium term, guided it through the particular difficulties presented by COVID, and left with the assurance that its finances were stable.
A player who was on the tournament committee for the tour said: “I am really grateful to Keith for his dedication and passion.
“Challenges largely beyond his control throughout his tenure inhibited his desire to grow the tour and instead he had to act in ways that would have been unforeseen when taking up the job.”
Critics point out that the top players are now annually disqualified and that the European Tour’s success is inextricably tied to that of the PGA Tour, which is heavily influenced by the LIV league, which is financed by Saudi Arabia.
Thus, opinions of Pelley’s legacy are divided. “I accept some people will view his time as chief executive differently, but for me he was a good leader,” the DP World Tour player continued.
After closely observing his tenure, I also think he’s a warm, sincere, and kind man. He made the most of the hand he was dealt and has a sharp business sense.
But he leaves with many unanswered questions. The men’s professional game is in disarray, and Guy Kinnings, the director of the Ryder Cup, who will succeed him, has a challenging agenda.
