Lee Westwood has vowed never to rejoin the DP World Tour – despite golf’s shock merger with the Saudis – after being barred from this summer’s Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl for not paying fines totaling more than £800,000.
After last week’s unexpected alliance of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour with the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund it was hoped that the Europe Ryder Cup legends who had resigned their memberships would be allowed back into the blue-and-gold fold – if not for September’s match in Rome, but certainly for the biennial dust-ups thereafter.
The prospect of Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter assuming the captaincy was suddenly a possibility again.
However, Keith Pelley, the DP World Tour chief executive, has shown that regardless of the new partnership with the LIV Golf backers, he is determined to play hard ball with the rebels and insist they settle “outstanding fines” before they are handed back their cards and, are thus eligible again for the Ryder Cup.
For Westwood, Telegraph Sport has learned that this amounts to another £830,000, on top of the £100,000 he has already coughed up.
“The Senior Open has said I have to pay ‘outstanding fines’, but I don’t ‘have to’ as I’ve resigned my membership of the Tour,” Westwood said. “I’m puzzled. I didn’t know you have to be a member of the European Tour to play in the Senior Open. It is not very ‘open’ if that’s so, is it?”
It is a big blow for Porthcawl, if nothing else. Westwood, who turned 50 six weeks ago, was planning on making his debut in the veteran ranks at the Welsh links, teeing it up against the likes of Darren Clarke, his former Ryder Cup man who is the defending champion of the senior major.
But on Thursday, Westwood received a letter informing him of the “committee’s decision” to exclude him. “The committee has considered your application and is not willing to approve it, because you have outstanding fines imposed on you for breaching its conflicting tournament regulations,” it said. “You will therefore be removed from the entry list and your entry fee will be refunded with immediate effect.”
Westwood was surprised, if only because the majors have so far largely kept out of the LIV divide, allowing those rebels eligible to compete in their tournaments. But while the R&A, the St Andrews governing body, is in sole charge of the Open Championship the Senior Open is apparently jointly owned with the DP World Tour.
The letter reminded Westwood that the closing date for Porthcawl entries is July 6, “should you intend to settle your outstanding fines and reapply before the deadline”.
He is clearly unprepared to do that, explaining that he will continue to play on the LIV circuit – in whatever form it will now take – as well as on the Asian Tour. Westwood is not the only LIV player who has been denied a Senior Open berth, with Richard Bland’s entry also declined.
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