A trip to the home of golf in August is more than a pilgrimage to where the game started, it signals intent to take the organisation deeper into the heartland of the DP World Tour, after decades of its rival doing the same thing in reverse.

“We are an ambitious initiative that aims to travel and go beyond our traditional borders to help grow the game and there can be no better place to play one of our events than where the game originated,” Rahul Singh, head of the International Series, said.

That ambition extends beyond the series, with the Asian Tour also establishing a foothold in the US through its Q-school.

The battle for golf’s future has left the DP World Tour exposed to that challenge, and while it won last week’s arbitration case against the LIV players who left to join the rival outfit, that has not necessarily strengthened its hand.

According to a report in Golf Digest, one DPWT insider described it as “weaker than at any stage in its history”, and questioned the value of the strategic alliance with the PGA Tour.

“Too many ‘nothing’ events. Too many ‘nothing players’ competing for close to nothing, with close to nobody watching in person or on TV,” the insider said. “It’s a dire state of affairs. They need to escape the clutches of the PGA Tour.”

Still in its infancy, the International Series is also sparsely attended, nor is it prime-time viewing, and it hardly rises to the level of marquee DPWT events such as the Dubai Desert Classic or BMW PGA Championship, but the US$2 million prize purses are more than a match for other events like the Indian Open, Porsche European Open in Germany, or the Soudal Open in Belgium.

Its connection to LIV also gives the Asian Tour players with name recognition, the likes of Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia have all played in tournaments this season, while Paul Casey and Anriban Lahiri were in Vietnam.

All are part of LIV Golf, which has pumped some US$300 million into the Asian Tour, and while some observers believe the court victory will allow the DP World Tour to dictate its relationship with those that have left, that ignores the pull of a growing organisation with significant financial backing from Saudi Arabia.

Neither Casey nor Lahiri would be drawn too much on their feelings about the court case other than to agree they were focusing on their games and would let “the people in power figure it out”.

When asked about the possibility of the Asian Tour becoming the equal of its European rival, Casey, who won 15 times on the DPWT, replied that he didn’t have a “crystal ball”.

Lahiri though said far from the Tour having the potential to become a viable option in the future, that time had already arrived.

“I don’t think we have to talk about it in it’s future tense,” he said. “It’s already happening, it’s happened in the past, a lot of the golf superstars have originally played here, a lot of the people who are now on the front pages of magazines started golf here, some of them still come back and play here.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of will it happen in the future, it’s happened in the past and I think with the current support the Asian Tour has, I think that’s only going to improve.”

Tom Kim, who is now proving his worth in the US, is just the latest example of those who have honed their skills in Asia before moving to play among the elite.

But not everyone follows that path, and with the International Series order of merit winner earning a spot on the LIV circuit, players have other options when it comes to making a living.

Wade Ormsby, who has won multiple times in Asia, said the changes and pathway to LIV had made it a “destination Tour”.

“Where before we maybe used to play some in Europe, play some in Asia, now guys are coming here to solely play the Asian Tour as their No 1 Tour,” he said.

“The strength of fields has gone through the roof, and it’s a much different looking Asian Tour now than what we had in the past.”