Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter TERMINATE DP World Tour membership, ending the trio’s already dim hopes of making it to this year’s Ryder Cup
- Trio resigns due to severe sanctions confirmed by arbitration hearing
- Ends any faint hopes they had of making it to this year’s Ryder Cup
- Another major marker post in the sport broken by the Saudi Arabian backed LIV Tour
Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter have canceled their DP World Tour memberships due to heavy sanctions for participating in the LIV series.
The trio’s decisions, which formally confirm their exclusion from the Ryder Cup, were confirmed on Wednesday and follow their loss in a major arbitration hearing between the European circuit and the LIV defectors in April.
Mail Sport revealed last week that the Rebels could face huge fines as a result of that verdict, with the DP World Tour issuing retrospective penalties on a sliding scale of £100,000 and below for each of the LIV tournaments they entered without permission. participated .
Westwood, Poulter, Garcia and England veteran Richard Bland, who also resigned, have played in all 13 LIV events so far, so drastic cumulative penalties could end when sanctions are finalized. Greg Norman has previously said the Saudi-backed startup will pay all legal costs.
Ian Poulter has withdrawn his membership from the DP World Tour following an arbitration hearing
His former Ryder Cup teammate Sergio Garcia has done the same in a further marker post of golf’s fractured nature.
Lee Westwood will not compete in this year’s Ryder Cup following his decision to cancel his membership
The DP World Tour said in a statement: “(We) would like to take this opportunity to thank the four players for their contribution to the Tour and in particular to Sergio, Ian and Lee for the important role they have played in Europe’s success in the Ryder Cup for many years.
“However, their resignations, together with the sanctions imposed on them, are a result of their own choices.
“As we have consistently maintained over the past year, the Tour has a responsibility to all of its members to administer the membership regulations for which each player signs up. These rules are there to protect the collective interests of all DP World Tour members.
“The independent panel appointed by Sport Resolutions recognized this and determined that our conflicting tournament regulations and their application in the circumstances did not go beyond what was necessary and proportionate to the continuation of the Tour as a professional golf tour and that we have a legitimate interest in protecting our full membership rights by enforcing them.”
The Tour said a further update on other sanctioned members would be made on Thursday.