From the Clubhouse: Is the DP World Tour now the ‘Championship’ of golf?
Has the decision to offer DP World Tour membership to PGA Tour players who don’t make the grade put European golf in its place, or does it offer a new hierarchy and should be celebrated? Our podcast team get stuck in
If the PGA Tour is the Premier League, does that make the DP World Tour the ‘Championship’? Or is it even worse than that?
In this episode of the From the Clubhouse podcast, Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll unpick the bones of the DP World Tour’s offer of full membership to players who have failed to keep their PGA Tour cards.
Is it, as some are claiming, confirmation of the status of European golf as a feeder tour, or can this new element of the strategic alliance work to everyone’s advantage?
Elsewhere, some significant changes have been announced at another Open venue with the bulldozers moving into Royal Birkdale.
We ask if such tinkering enhances or spoils classic courses and consider whether our best layouts should move with the times or stay as museum pieces.
Steve has also spent the last five months playing every score counts golf. He gives a final update of what happened to his World Handicap System index over the summer season.
And after Brooks Koepka questioned whether golf was actually a sport, our duo’s temperatures start rising.
Let’s see if you can keep your composure too during their hour of debate.
From the Clubhouse is produced in association with TaylorMade Golf.
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Steve Carroll
A journalist for 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long. A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A's prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.
Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men's Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.
A part of NCG's Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; TaylorMade Stealth 2 irons; TaylorMade Hi-Toe, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.
