Fans watching the DP World Tour on TV will occasionally get a glimpse of a full leaderboard, showing where players are in the tournament and in their round.
Next to the names of some of the players, fans will see a star or several stars. It's not exactly clear from the presence of those stars alone what they might mean, so let us explain.
What do the stars next to a player's name mean on the DP World Tour leaderboard?
The stars next to a player's name on a DP World Tour leaderboard indicate the number of Rolex Series events that player has won. For example, there are five stars next to Jon Rahm's name on the leaderboard because he has won five Rolex Series events.
The DP World Tour was known as the European Tour when the Rolex Series was announced in 2017, with the hopes of creating a series of events throughout the year its top-name and top-ranked players would play over the PGA Tour because the purses would be competitive with what's on offer each week in the United States.
When European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley announced the Rolex Series, there were eight events throughout the season, all having a purse of $7 million or more. In 2023, there five: the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Hero Dubai Desert Classic, Genesis Scottish Open, BMW PGA Championship and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
The events in the Rolex Series have changed over the years, but the stars indicate wins in events when they were a part of the series. These are indications of wins in some of the best DP World Tour-exclusive events on their schedule outside the co-sanctioned major championships. The more stars a player has next to their name, the more impact they've had in the series going back to 2017.
