The DP World Tour is European golf's main circuit, running a season long ranking called the Race to Dubai that sends its leading players to the PGA Tour. LIV Golf is a separate league backed by Saudi investment, built on a fixed roster of contracted players competing in teams as well as individually.
The DP World Tour is the old European Tour under a sponsor's name, renamed in 2021. It runs a conventional schedule of open-entry tournaments with cuts, and its season long ranking is a route onto the PGA Tour for the players who finish highest, which shapes how its members plan a year.
LIV is structured as a league rather than a tour. Players are contracted to one of thirteen four-player teams, with a small number of places kept for wild cards, and there is no cut, so every player in the field plays every round. Individual and team titles are decided across the season.
Its format has moved towards the mainstream. LIV began with fifty-four hole events, the shorter format the roman numerals in its name refer to, and switched to seventy-two holes for the 2026 season as part of a broader alignment with the established tours.