Opportunities at the DP World Tour for players from the China Tour in exchange for co-sanctioned tournaments in the Asian giant. This is the strategic agreement announced today by the European Circuit and the China Golf Association.
Specifically, the leader of the China Tour ranking in 2023, Guxin Chen, enters directly into category 17 of the DP World Tour, composed of the best golfers from the Australian, South African, Indian, Korean, Japanese and Chinese circuits. This category is just behind the Challenge Tour and ahead of the School, so they can have an interesting schedule, but not complete.
In addition, the second best ranked in the China Tour ranking, in 2023 was Linquiang Li, will access category 12 of the Challenge Tour. Similarly, the leader of the order of merit will have a direct place in the school final and the next three will access the School semi-final.
In return, the China Golf Association commits to promoting three golf tournaments in its country co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour in 2024 and 2025. These are the Volvo China Open, which returns to the European Circuit calendar four years later and will be held from May 2 to 5 at the Hidden Grace Golf Club with a prize pool of two million dollars, and two tournaments for the Challenge Tour with a half million dollar prize pool: Hainan Open and Hangzhou Open. Both will be held in October.
This agreement with Chinese golf is part of the European Circuit’s strategy to build bridges with Tours from different regions of the world to seek alliances that strengthen the calendar of the DP World Tour itself and, at the same time, serve to incorporate the best talent from those areas.
