One of professional golf’s great breeding grounds is set to become even more competitive as the number of DP World Tour cards available via the HotelPlanner Tour will be reduced from 20 to 15 in 2026.

The same will go for DP World Tour Qualifying School with the aim of giving more balanced playing opportunities for players who earn a DP World Tour card through any of the existing pathways. 

Pathways in golf are more important than ever given the squeeze that is being put on the sport from the top down but HotelPlanner Tour Director Jamie Hodges is confident that the second tier will continue to produce future superstars.

“This year there was a review of the entire membership structure of the DP World Tour due to the schedule and global golf evolving in recent years. The whole topic was discussed with the Tournament Committee and they were supportive of the changes,” explains Hodges who became Director of the HotelPlanner Tour in 2020.

“So as part of that review, it was decided that greater schedule certainty and more balanced playing opportunities needed to be created for players who earn a DP World Tour card through any of the existing pathways. And rather than take those spots from one area, it was decided that changes would be made to several areas within the category structure.”

The Rolex Grand Final supported by The R&A at Club de Golf Alcanada is where dreams come true and hearts get broken and this year is no different. 45 players have been battling it out for 20 cards while some of the top ranked players have already secured their DP World Tour status.

Next year’s Grand Final might not be so stress free for some, with 15 cards meaning that everyone will have to be on their toes whether you are 1st or 45th which could lead to an even more dramatic season climax.

“This tour will be even more competitive than it’s ever been,” Hodges continues. “There are probably 13 or 14 guys here this week who know that they are playing on the DP World Tour next season. There’s not going to be that number next year so even more competition and that suddenly becomes something that we can use as the competitive nature of this tour increases the events count even more and matter even more. 

“When players are going to Q-School and getting a card but not getting the opportunities they are expecting, that also has a knock on effect on us, so they play on our tour, which then has a knock on effect on the satellite tours, and then the pathway and the pyramid is not delivering in the way that it should be.”

The statistics prove that the HotelPlanner Tour is a brilliant pathway for developing the next generation of superstars. Tommy Fleetwood was crowned HotelPlanner Tour Number One in 2011 but since Hodges took the reins in 2020 there has been a consistent flow of talent coming through the tour and with a high success rate on the DP World Tour.

Marco Penge, who won the Road to Mallorca Rankings in 2023, has won three times this year on the DP World Tour and is set to earn a PGA Tour card while fellow alumni Matteo Manassero and Jesper Svensson have earned cards Stateside.

Last year’s Rolex Grand Final winner Kristoffer Reitan is 4th in the Race to Dubai and is set to win a PGA Tour card as is John Parry in 7th while Martin Couvra (14th), Joakim Lagergren (16th), Road to Mallorca Number One Rasmus Neergaard Petersen (18th), Angel Ayora (24th), Oliver Lindell (40th), Brandon Robinson-Thompson (50th) and Mikael Lindberg are all set to contest the upcoming DP World Tour playoffs from last year’s 20 graduates.

“I would say that in the last few years, where we always used to measure success in terms of how many players had kept their card when they went up, that number is important, but what we’re now almost more interested in is wins and performances,” says Hodges.

“When Jesper Swenson and Matteo Manassero went from here to the DP World Tour to the PGA Tour, that was deeply satisfying. Obviously, we have to respect the fact that we don’t hit the shots, the guys are the ones who deserve the credit.  It’s not just the platform, it’s trying to give them the best possible platform, so that when they move up, everything is familiar and they’re ready to perform to their level. 

“The players who play on the DP World Tour are actually adding to that tour.” 

The HotelPlanner Tour has 265 members and Hodges makes sure that the tournaments are run as close to DP World Tour level as possible, but his master stroke has been to host tournaments on golf courses that replicate the weekly test of the top tier in order to reduce the gap when players do get promoted.

“Our purpose is to provide the best possible pathway and prepare the players in such a way that when they move on to the DP World Tour, there is as small a difference as possible,” he adds.

“What we’re trying to do is reduce the gap between the DP World Tour and here. One of the main things that we’ve been working on in the last few years is on the golf courses that we play.

“They’re never going to be exactly the same in terms of the test, but we want to try and reduce the gap between them, so we now have an agronomist that visits every single one of our venues and provides a report to each of them. 

“Certain tournaments have visits from them during the tournament week itself, with a view on trying to prepare the venue and the golf course and improve the test as much as possible, so that when the players move from here to the DP World Tour the difference is not so stark.”

Liam Nolan and Max Kennedy enjoyed encouraging maiden professional seasons on the HotelPlanner Tour, earning €66k and €62k respectively in tournament earnings.

Hodges has made a huge push to increase the prize money gradually year by year and 2025 saw the minimum prize purse for an event at €300,000 thanks in part to HotelPlanner taking over as title sponsor from the Challenge Tour and he hopes to build on that.

“That was what was so fundamental, or so critical in the decision to bring Hotel Planner on board as title sponsor. We had the ability to be able to reinvest some of that money back into prize funds. All of our European sole sanction tournaments, the prize money increased to €300,000 so that’s now our minimum, and we also use some of that money to reinvest into certain tournaments, with the whole idea being that if we can raise the quality of our tournaments, that we have better events, and in turn a better tour.”

Part of the challenge for a Tour Director is finalising the schedule for the following year. The 2026 calendar has been in the works for much of the year and during Hodges’ tenure he has extended the season from March to November to January to November to give players more regular action.

Planning a tour schedule is a complicated task. There’s making sure travel arrangements are as easy as possible for the players, avoiding tournament clashes with the DP World Tour, the climate and ensuring sponsorship for events. The HotelPlanner Tour is in a position of strength with so many sponsors on multi-year contracts.

Some countries host back-to-back events, while schedules have to work around religious traditions like Ramadan and avoid clashes with other sporting events in other countries.

“One of the nice things is that a lot of our tournaments have been around for a long time,” Hodges adds. “Hopefully that shows that we deliver value back to our sponsors and our promoters that they enjoy working with us, which is important. And I think it shows the opportunity that we provide to the next generation of players.”

Hodges will travel to two thirds of the tournaments every year but he has a strong team around him and he feels indebted to them and humbled by their commitment to produce a top level experience on Europe’s second tier.

Hodges explains what a tournament week is like for him and his team: “We always manage the inside the ropes, so the golf side of things, we’ll always send a Tournament Director two referees, a tournament office manager, a press officer and two physios.

“Normally there’s also two scoring people and our team’s job is to manage the golf side of things, so that wherever we are in the world, we’re consistently operating in the same way from an integrity point of view, from a golf point of view. Then we rely on promoters, who are the organisations that are prepared to underwrite the cost of the tournament, and our tournament director liaises with the promoter and their teams on how to run the tournament, but broadly speaking, we look after inside the ropes, and they look after outside of the ropes. Those promoters can be national federations, sports marketing agencies, golf clubs. We own the Irish Challenge, the Rolex Grand Final, as well as the two that we have in the Middle East. For those, we are responsible for inside the ropes.”

The second the final putt is holed here in Alcanada, Hodges and his team will turn their attention to 2026. Being a Tour Director can be a relentless task but he thoroughly enjoys it and it’s clear to see that in the golf courses, prize money and the success rate of the graduates that he and his team have transformed this tour and their fingerprints will be all over future Major winners and Ryder Cup stars.

“If what you’re trying to do is go on to the DP World Tour and win events there, then this is the best place to learn how to prepare yourself for that,” he affirms.