I don’t have many followers on X, formerly Twitter. You probably know that. Actually, you don’t because you probably don’t follow me.
I post about golf, about football, and the odd comment which, in my own head, is hysterical. But due to my lack of following, I don’t get much engagement.
This is fine. I won’t be paying for Elon’s blue tick out of principle. I don’t care enough to buy followers. If something I post does take off, I know I’ve posted something half decent, or perhaps a story that golf fans have enjoyed reading.
This week was Q School week on the DP World Tour, where over 150 players were competing for playing status on the European circuit in 2026. It is known to be cut-throat, gut-wrenching and [insert any other hyperbolic adjective].
My X account has been awoken from its coma this week, because I have been posting about it. I am a fan of Eddie Pepperell, the two-time DP World Tour winner who has fallen out of form and out of love with the game in recent years, so much so that he spends most of his time on the Hotel Planner Tour (formerly the Challenge Tour).
This might be a caveat to my astronomical engagement in the last few days, as I have been posting about Pepperell’s progress. He is a hugely popular figure in the UK golf scene, not least because he is a member of one of the best golf podcasts around.
These posts have had comments, likes and general support for Pepperell. He is the reason for this spike, but it is also the event that is responsible. Q School is about livelihood, it is about golfers chasing dreams and salvaging them from nightmare seasons.
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It is an event of pride and genuine heartbreak and jeopardy. It is human and real, and if it were put on television, I would be absolutely shocked if it didn’t draw more eyeballs than the vast majority of golf tournaments, especially where the DP World Tour is concerned.
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I have watched the DP World Tour for about 15 years now. Not every week, but I’ve been invested and watch where I can. It is the tour that caught my interest in the game, and then, of course, I began staying up to watch the PGA Tour on Sundays.
During the main golf season, a handful of reporters compare viewing figures between the PGA Tour events and LIV Golf events that are held in the same week. The PGA Tour absolutely dwarfs its Saudi-funded opponent when it comes to tuned-in televisions. But, I would fear the gap would grow to an endlessly dark ravine if they were compared with the DP World Tour.
The cost of covering golf tournaments isn’t lost on me, but hear me out. Who would be against dropping events such as the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship, or the Porsche Singapore Classic, or the Austrian Alpine Open from the tele, if it meant more resources and investment could be made in broadcasting Q School?
Would that be such a bad thing?
I have not one thing against those events. They were respectively won by great players who don’t need to go to Q School. But for the reasons I’ve discussed above, why can’t the final two rounds of Q School be on Sky Sports’ TV schedule?
We’re not asking for all six rounds. We just want some human interest in golf, a tournament that isn’t about prize money. Q School is endlessly more compelling than a huge chunk of DP World Tour events, and I’d say a few PGA Tour events as well.
I know for a fact that golf fans are sitting on their phones refreshing the app to look at the leaderboard, feeling helpless and left out in the dark when it comes to coverage.
Heck, if an event can resuscitate my X account, then people must be watching and people must care.
If you think I’m talking nonsense, here is what Sky Sports commentator and former Q School participant Ewen Murray once said to me:
“I always thought that should be televised. It’s the most pressure – I had to go there once, and I missed (out) in 1989. It’s the most pressure that a player faces because the prize is so big, and failure is so bad because you’ve got to wait another year before you can have another go.
“It would make for great television – when you think 72 holes, to have a good first round and hang on to the lead or hang on being in contention until Sunday, that’s a long time. You add another 36 holes to that and one bad round and that can be the end of it. If you have a bad round in the fifth round, you haven’t got time to recover. The pressure in that is so different to any other tournament in the sport, and I always thought television should’ve had it on.
“Not for the whole six days, but after the cut is made after four rounds, you show the last two rounds and I think a lot of people would be fascinated by that, and they’d be surprised by A, the quality and B, the pressure these players are under.
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“You’ve got someone taking a double bogey at 13 and the next thing they’ve gone from the 12th card to outside the 25th card. It would be good, I think it’d be excellent, I’m just amazed that television companies haven’t said look, we’re having a go at this.”
What do you make of the DP World Tour Q School TV debate? Should there be a DP World Tour Q School TV debate? Tell us on X!
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