Paul McGinley lauded the pathway that the DP World Tour provides to the PGA Tour in the wake of Sami Valimaki’s victory at the RSM Classic.
Valimaki clinched his first PGA Tour title at Sea Island on Sunday which gives him a two-year exemption, a place in two Signature Events and cemented his place in the top-40 of the Official World Golf Ranking.
He became the first Finnish golfer to win on the PGA Tour and the eleventh European this season. He was one of ten players to progress stateside from the DP World Tour at the end of the 2023 season and he has not only managed to keep his place but joins Ryan Fox, Matthieu Pavon and Robert MacIntyre as winners from that European crop.
Despite providing significant playing opportunities on the PGA Tour, not everybody believes that the DP World Tour is in a good place often labelling it as a feeder tour and unable to stand on its own two feet.
Young players like the Hojgaard twins, Tom McKibbin and now Marco Penge have earned PGA Tour cards in the past but McGinley feels the strategic alliance between the two tours is helping European players reach their full potential.
“As a members organisation the European Tour was set up to serve its members,” the former Ryder Cup captain tweeted.
“It delivers now through the Strategic Alliance with amazing pathways on top of year on year record prize monies. It’s different now and was forced to evolve. Sami another who has taken his chance.”
The ten players who earned PGA Tour cards via the Race to Dubai rankings for next season are Penge, Laurie Canter, Kristoffer Reitan, Adrien Saddier, Alex Noren, John Parry, Haotong Li, Keita Nakajima, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Jordan Smith.
Canter looks like he could be set for a bombshell return to LIV Golf meaning he would become the third golfer to move to the Saudi backed circuit and foregoing a move to the PGA Tour like Adrian Meronk and McKibbin.
