Arbitration hearing over LIV golf set to take place this week

A key fight in golf’s civil war will take place in London this week with the lengthy arbitration hearing that will effectively determine whether LIV players can continue on the DP World Tour.

Starting Monday and running through Friday, Sports Resolutions will attempt to unravel the tangled legalities that have sprung up since LIV upended the traditional ecosystem with its launch at the Centurion Club in Hemel Hempstead last June.

While a verdict is not expected for several weeks after its conclusion, the optimistic hope is that the hearing before a three-man panel will offer some semblance of clarity about what will happen next in the bitter battles that have ensued since the leak. Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed campaign crashed into the status quo.

The Tour storyline, laid out on Legalize by CEO Keith Pelley and his director of communications Scott Crockett, centers around interpretations of its “conflicting event release rule,” which requires a player to receive permission to play on a Tour. opponent at any given time.

When a number of players on the European circuit, including Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, played for Centurion eight months ago without being released, they were hit with three events and a £100,000 fine.

Lee Westwood is among those whose future on the DP World Tour is up for grabs

Sports Resolutions suspended those sanctions in July pending the outcome of this hearing, and in the meantime LIV players were allowed to continue on the DP World Tour, leading to tensions around the teegate between Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed in Dubai last year. week.

The objective of the next hearing, which pits the lawyers of 13 LIV golfers against those of the Tour, will establish if those days of uncomfortable coexistence become a thing of the past.

Unsurprisingly, both sides have been optimistic about their chances, although there is a growing sense that the LIV mavericks have an especially strong case as independent contractors, citing the long-established trend of elite golfers operating in multiple routes.

Mischievously, but with a grain of plausibility, there is also a school of thought within the sport that a Tour defeat would ultimately be in their favor in light of the little brother relationship they have with their strategic partners on the PGA Tour.

As Phil Mickelson said recently: ‘I hope the players, the LIV players will win their case in the UK and we will open the doors for all players to play on the European Tour.

“There’s a big chance you’ll have more matchups, more head-to-head competition like you saw last week in Dubai and that would be a really good thing for the game.”

Among the loose ends that need to be tied up by the audience is the situation of LIV golfers with aspirations to play in the Ryder Cup later this year.

Automatic qualification will be nearly impossible in the absence of playing on Tour to collect points, though Pelley did confirm that honorary Tour members like Sergio Garcia would still be eligible for Luke Donald’s captain’s pick.

Ian Poulter has also been involved with LIV golf, with a hearing scheduled for this week.

Rory McIlroy is among those who have taken a strong stand against those involved with LIV

Of course, the likelihood of that scenario seems almost non-existent when Rory McIlroy has taken such a strong position against his involvement.

The player among the defectors with the most realistic chance of qualifying is Spaniard Adrián Otaegui, who tamed the brutal Valderrama course last year by winning his fourth Tour event.

He played LIV events throughout its inaugural season but has since turned down proposals to stay with the breakaway in hopes of being cleared to play the Cup game in Rome this fall.

Otaegui said: ‘For me to be in the Ryder Cup would be great. It has been my dream ever since. And it’s my number one goal this year. That’s the only thing I have in my head. So I hope I can do it. It is a very big thing for me.

‘It would be difficult (if he’s prevented) because I don’t see why he couldn’t be in the team, or the (LIV) players couldn’t be in the team. So obviously that’s my point of view.

‘For me, the Ryder Cup is Europe against America. It is not about LIV, about the European Tour, about the PGA Tour. For me, it’s the best players in Europe, against the best players in the United States, and it’s always been that way.

There have been players over the years on the European team who played out their career in America and made it to the European team.

And he added: ‘We will see what happens with the hearings. We won’t know what happens until the next few weeks.

Adrián Otaegui hopes to be cleared so he can participate in the Ryder Cup