It’s inevitable that Eddie Pepperell will have questions about his 2027 playing schedule.
He’s on the bubble, after all, entering this week at No. 99 in the DP World Tour’s season standings, with only the top 100 maintaining healthy status for next season. Their card network fate is in the hands of a pair of players currently playing the final event of the regular season, the Genesis Championship in South Korea.
But given the times, it is also inevitable that he has questions about who other will also play in 2027.
In a thoughtful post to his Substack (yes, a pro golfer with a Substack, a rare but fun crossover) Pepperell weighed in on a current central subplot of the professional golf ecosystem: What happens to golfers who leave LIV?
While LIV 2.0 may yet happen, recent weeks have brought a parade of professionals announcing their intentions to leave the failed rebel circuit and rejoin traditional golf tours. Because the PGA Tour’s doors remain closed, at least for now, the DPWT appears to have become its de facto landing zone.
That, Pepperell writes, is the foundation for the “preaching” of the DPWT. He adds that this situation is “mainly and precariously brought about by weakness”.
I will link to the post here and again at the end, but Pepperell’s reflection made the rounds, because he loves the DPWT and is able to offer an unflinching look at his current dilemma. The league is losing money, financially dependent on the PGA Tour, its television revenue is down and it is starving for star power. This last bit is where the ex-LIV guys could help, although their re-entry will raise the ire of some DPWT loyalists. And weakened a league that had become a direct competitor? That might help too.
But where do you draw the line?
This is where Pepperell weighs in most strongly.
“But, in ride Charles Howell III. Not someone I had on my list of knights in shining armor for the DPWT,” he writes.
Howell is among those without any semblance of existing DPWT status who has announced he will play the circuit, suggesting a deal was struck behind closed doors. Giving Howell and others this credit, Pepperell writes, is a “miscalculation.” As for where he will draw the line?
“The Joaquin Niemanns of the world, Cam Smith, Bryson of course. Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton have their exemptions. Actually, from my perspective, you don’t need to do much else, just make sure that everyone else goes back to the qualifying school. The idea that Charles Howell III is on this list, with all due respect to Charles – he’s a terrific guyre.”
Pepperell made a point of publishing the piece before his status is set for 2027 because he didn’t want to be accused of sour grapes. But there are certain realities; a place that goes to an ex-LIV pro could be used on someone who has shown more affinity for the DPWT than Howell, who went about a quarter of a century between the start.
We’re not going to focus on Howell anymore, except to say that every player the DPWT takes from LIV is one less player who can bring their next theoretical chapter to life. But by giving in too aggressively to that line of thinking, writes Pepperell, you sacrifice something in terms of meritocracy.
In this era of golf, he concluded, decisions must be made in the “cold and dark domain” where business intersects with sport.
All worth reading here.