The DP World Tour, also known as the PGA European Tour has finally released its schedule for the 2024 season, and it involves some massive changes. The Tour will begin in Novemeber and will last a complete year. During that time, there will be a minimum of 44 events in 24 countries, spanning five continents.
Interestingly, the new season brings many surprises and significant changes in the structure of the Tour. Let's take a look at the five major changes to the DP World Tour schedule for the 2024 season.
1. Massive boost in prize fund
The European PGA Tour has one of the biggest prize pools in professional golf. Interestingly, the prize has been given a massive boost, and golfers will play for a prize fund of $148.5 million. Previously, the pool was around the region of $144.2 million.
2. New tournaments
The DP World Tour spans different continents and has many competitons under its belt. However, the organization has decided to add two more championships. The first one will be the Dubai Invitational, which will be held at the Dubai Creek Golf Club from January 11-14. The second one will be the Bahrain Championship, which will be held February 1-4.
3. A schedule change for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
The Rolez series event was always held at the Yas Links in the month of January. However, that won't be the case this year. Instead, the prestigious championship will have a change of schedule and will be played in November, along with the DP World Tour playoffs.
4. Massive changes in the 'Race to Dubai'
Rory Mcllroy won the iconic Harry Vardon Trophy for the fourth time in 2022. Interestingly, the Tour has decided to divide the competition into three different phases. The first phase will be the Global Swing, followed by the Back 9 and the final phase will be the DP World Tour playoffs.
5. Added incentives for participants
Although the prize pool for the tournament is extremely generous. The Tour has decided to award its participants with further incentives. The Global Swing phase will include added incentives where champions from each of the five swings will earn $200,000 from an aditional prize pool of $1 million.
The Volvo China Open makes a comeback for the DP World Tour
DP World Tour is currently the biggest men's professional golf tour in Europe. Players from around the globe compete in the prestigious series of tournaments and championships.
With many events on the schedule, the organization has decided to reintroduce another open that was pretty famous during its time. The Volvo China Open was sanctioned from 2004 to 2019. However, it wasn't held in 2022 or 2023 for unknown reasons.
Fortunately, it has now been sanctioned and will be held in the Chinese city of Shenzhen from May 2-5.