Golf doesn't have one league — it has a whole ecosystem of tours, each with its own structure, prestige, and player base. Here's the full map.
Since 2022 the sport has been divided by the emergence of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league. For the full story on the split, lawsuits, and current state of affairs, see the dedicated page.
The PGA Tour is the premier men's professional tour in the world — or at least it was until LIV arrived. Based in the United States, it runs from January through August, with most events in the US and a handful internationally. The best players in the world have historically competed here, and it remains the home of the world's top-ranked players.
The PGA Tour season culminates in the FedEx Cup Playoffs — three events in late August where the top 70 players from the regular season compete for a $25 million bonus pool and the FedEx Cup title.
The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in March is often called the "fifth major" — it has the largest purse of any PGA Tour event, an elite invite-only field, and enormous prestige, though it carries no official major status.
Formerly the European Tour, the DP World Tour is the top professional tour outside the United States, playing events across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Historically the second-most prestigious tour in men's golf, it's the developmental pathway for many of the world's best players.
The DP World Tour runs a co-sanctioned schedule with the PGA Tour for many events — meaning players from either tour can compete and earn ranking points on both tours simultaneously. This alliance tightened in the aftermath of LIV Golf's launch as both tours sought to consolidate against the new competitor.
Notable DP World Tour events include the Scottish Open (co-sanctioned), the Irish Open, and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
LIV Golf launched in 2022 as a breakaway league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). It operates a very different model: 54-hole tournaments (no fourth round), shotgun starts (all players tee off simultaneously across the course), no cut, and a team competition running alongside the individual one.
LIV poached many big names from the PGA Tour with enormous guaranteed contracts — Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, and many others. The PGA Tour responded by suspending LIV players, leading to a multi-year legal and commercial battle.
LIV still does not award full Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, which has limited how its players can qualify for the four major championships.
The Korn Ferry Tour is the PGA Tour's official developmental tour — the equivalent of minor leagues in baseball or the second division in soccer. Players who finish in the top 30 of the Korn Ferry Tour rankings each season earn their PGA Tour card for the following year. It's where promising young players go before they're ready for the main tour.
Formerly the Senior PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions is open to players aged 50 and over. It runs a robust schedule with substantial prize money, and it's where legends like Bernhard Langer, Ernie Els, and Colin Montgomerie continued competing well into their 50s and 60s. Tiger Woods will be eligible in 2025.
The LPGA Tour (Ladies Professional Golf Association) is the premier women's professional tour, featuring the world's best female golfers. The LPGA has five major championships of its own: the ANA Inspiration (The Chevron Championship), KPMG Women's PGA Championship, US Women's Open, The Chevron Championship, and the AIG Women's Open.
The women's game has seen a surge in global talent, particularly from South Korea, which has produced a remarkable number of world-class players over the past two decades.
The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) determines who gets into major fields and who represents their country.
The Official World Golf Ranking is a rolling ranking that assigns points based on tournament results. Points decay over two years, encouraging consistent performance. The higher your world ranking, the more exempt you are from qualifying rounds and the easier it is to get into the biggest tournaments.
World ranking is a key factor in major qualification. For example, the top 50 in the world at the end of the previous year are typically exempt into The Masters. The top 65 at the time of the tournament get in automatically to the US Open.
The LIV Golf controversy has centered in part on OWGR points. LIV Golf has struggled to get full ranking points recognized, meaning many LIV players have fallen significantly in the rankings — making it harder to qualify for majors even if they remain elite players by any measure.