LIV stars explain U-turn after finally settling | Golf News

Former world No. 1 Lee Westwood says his alternative to settle his fines with the DP World Tour was about offering him with “options” given LIV Golf’s unsure future.

Westwood and his Majesticks co-captain Ian Poulter have both paid off the financial penalties they amassed with the European circuit after becoming a member of LIV as founding members in 2022. They have been penalized for each event they competed in in the breakaway league before shedding an arbitration case in 2023, which prompted them to resign their memberships.

The Ryder Cup icons have been incensed about the financial sanctions they confronted, and Westwood pledged never to return to the tour where he ranks second only to Rory McIlroy on the all-time money record. He steered a attainable return in June during LIV’s financial difficulties.

Later that month, both he and Poulter paid the fines they owed to the tour, permitting them to reapply for membership. Their mixed fines are understood to complete roughly $1.1 million each, and they are going to be ready to apply for reinstatement in November.

Westwood shared his perspective at a press convention before LIV Golf U.Ok., which begins at JCB Golf and Country Club in Uttoxeter, England, on Thursday. He said: “What it does is give us options having them paid.”

“When the current financial backers of the tour are talking about pulling out and we’re being indemnified, it just makes sense to get them paid straight away before they do pull out. That’s really why we had them paid when we did.

“But I still do not agree with the fines because we’re being fully handled in a different way to the people enjoying on this tour. I believe the fines have been extreme, as properly, when you take into account what other people did and how a lot they received fined traditionally.”

Former world No. 5 Poulter went on to say: “Look, the fines have been always going to be paid at some level, and that was down to myself and Lee to select when that time was proper.

“The European Tour and LIV Golf and the acceptance of it all, it’s all in a very different position today than what it was four years ago when we were being fined the way we were. There are no fines in place today for guys that are playing on LIV Golf, and that’s a massive change. When you look certainly how Jon [Rahm] and Tyrrell [Hatton] were treated back in the day, to still be able to play European Tour golf and play in Ryder Cups.

“Things are shifting ahead in the best direction. What does it imply for me playing-wise on the European Tour? I’m not sure yet, to be sincere with you. I’m still hopeful that issues work out in the best method for me to play a quantity of different tournaments at different occasions.”

The decision to wipe the disciplinary record clean arrives as questions mount regarding LIV’s future following Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s announcement that it would cease funding after this season. The league suffered another setback in its pursuit of new backers on Tuesday when the Asian Tour revealed it had formed a partnership with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

Westwood, specifically, felt aggrieved by the sanctions he encountered in the months following LIV’s debut, having maintained his status as an active European Tour member despite having chances to compete full-time on the PGA Tour.

The 53-year-old Englishman opposes the strategic alliance between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, which was established following the LIV breakaway.

The 10-card rule, which grants PGA Tour membership to the top-10 finishers in the DP World Tour’s Race To Dubai not already qualified to compete in the U.S., troubles Westwood particularly, as he believes the system is siphoning talent from Europe.

“I believe [the DP World Tour is] spinning a lot of plates at the second, proper, with funding from the PGA Tour and issues like that, and it is clear to me that their fields improve when LIV gamers are allowed to play,” he said.

“But LIV gamers aren’t allowed to play on the PGA Tour at the second, are they, yet the PGA Tour will get a specific amount of say. They have a board member on the European Tour, and they fund it a lot. So they in all probability have a specific amount of say down at Wentworth, proper?”