GOLF IN THE GUTTER
++ American Tour bans Saudi breakaway players ++ Rebels are slammed as being all about ‘money, money, money’ ++ LIV series dismisses move as ‘vindictive’ ++
THE PGA Tour dramatically crashed the opening day of the Saudi breakaway series yesterday by suspending their defectors in a major escalation of golf’s civil war.
In an explosive letter to PGA members, sent within half an hour of the first tee shots at Centurion Club in St Albans, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan declared that 17 players, including Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia, would be banned from their events indefinitely.
Although the situation around their participation in future majors remains undecided, the PGA Tour’s sanctions are a line in the sand between golf’s established factions and the stars who have cashed in by joining the LIV Invitational Series.
The same punishment will apply to players who enter future LIV competitions, with Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed expected to join in the coming weeks. LIV responded by calling the Tour ‘vindictive’.
Monahan’s letter said: ‘Participation in the Saudi Golf League/LIV Golf event is in violation of our tournament regulations. These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons. I am certain our fans and partners — who are surely tired of
all this talk of money, money and more money — will continue to be entertained and compelled by the worldclass competition you display each and every week, where there are true consequences for every shot you take and your rightful place in history whenever you reach that elusive winner’s circle. ‘(The Tour’s) collective legacy can’t be bought or sold.’ Poulter plans to appeal against the PGA’s ruling.
He said last night: ‘I will appeal for sure if that’s exactly what it says (in the PGA letter). It makes no sense how I have played golf all this time. I haven’t done anything wrong. ‘I am playing the game I love and they’re going to take that opportunity away. It’s disappointing.’ A number of players — including Johnson, Martin Kaymer, McDowell, Garcia, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Na, Charl Schwartzel and Westwood — had moved to nullify the impact of the expected sanctions by resigning their PGA Tour membership in advance of the LIV opener at Centurion. Making up the 17 banned players were Talor Gooch, Matt Jones, Andy Ogletree, Turk Pettit, Hudson Swafford and Peter Uihlein, who are among the 48 playing for an obscene prize pot of £20million. The LIV series led by Greg Norman hit out with a statement that read: ‘The announcement by the PGA Tour is vindictive and it
deepens the divide between the Tour and its members. It’s troubling that the Tour, an organisation dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing. This certainly is not
the last word on this topic.’ What happens next will be fascinating, particularly in regards to the Ryder Cup and the four majors. On the latter, the US Open have said those in this field will remain eligible, but longer term it has not been stated how the different organisers of the quartet — Augusta National, the PGA of America, the USGA and the R&A — will respond to players siding with LIV Golf. Likewise the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, have remained silent on their own stance to the rebels.
Westwood and Poulter admitted on Wednesday that they do not know if they will ever again feature in the Ryder Cup. Players at Centurion have been buffeted through the week with accusations that they are enabling sports-washing by signing up to the Saudi-backed series, which will have eight events in its first season. Mickelson alone is believed to have pocketed a £160m signing-on fee. It emerged yesterday that they had been coached on how to handle thorny questions with a crib sheet distributed by organisers.