DP World Tour forced to apologise after nearly RUINING pro's career

The DP World Tour was forced to apologise to a player after a massive administrative error derailed the first half of his season.

Lara Kuipers

11 May 2023

The DP World Tour has been forced to apologise after derailing a player's season due to an administrative error.

Stephen Gallacher, a four-time DP World Tour winner and a member of the 2014 European Ryder Cup team, has had a roller-coaster past few months as a result.

The 48-year-old finished 173rd in the Race to Dubai Rankings last season and had seemingly lost his DP World Tour card as a result.

The Scotsman proceeded to go to qualifying school, paying for it, but could not win back his full DP World Tour status.

Instead, he had minimal playing access between the DP World Tour and its fundamental tour, the Challenge Tour.

As a result, Gallacher has only played in four DP World Tour events and just one Challenge Tour event so far this season, primarily on sponsor's exemptions.

However, it appears Gallacher will no longer have any difficulty getting into DP World Tour events from now on, and rightly so.

As it turns out, due to an administrative error by the DP World Tour, Gallacher's status was wrongly taken away, according to The Scotsman.

The result of the error left Gallacher off the career money exemption list, which he should have been on.

Gallacher spoke on the situation:

"Golf has to be one of the most unique sports in how things go for you and against you and, throughout my career, like everybody else, you experience a vast range of highs and lows.

"This has to be one of the better days as it allows me the opportunity to plan my season properly and look to lock down my playing privileges again.

“It's been a volatile time in the world of golf with various people coming and going across all our Tours, so I know how challenging things have been to administer.

“I can only thank DP World Tour for firstly holding their hands up and explaining the error but, more importantly, sorting things out so quickly to allow me to get cracking properly again.”

In addition to reinstating his current status, the DP World Tour has granted Gallacher a special exemption into 2024 to cover the time that Gallacher missed in 2023 so far.

They also gave Gallacher, who turned professional in 1995, their "unreserved apologies" for the costly mishap, per The Scotsman story.

This week, the DP World Tour is in Belgium for the Soudal Open, which Gallacher is playing in.

Sam Horsfield won the tournament last year, but is unable to defend his title since he joined LIV Golf.

The Majesticks GC team member also just underwent surgery and is expected to miss the next few months on the rival circuit.

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