Matt Fitzpatrick says it’s going to be “odd” seeing LIV Golf players at next month’s BMW PGA Championship, with the field at Wentworth set to feature more than a dozen of the series’ golfers.
As it stands, the likes of Patrick Reed, Abraham Ancer, Kevin Na, Talor Gooch, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Jason Kokrak, Martin Kaymer and more LIV players are listed in the tournament’s entry list.
As well as calling it odd, US Open champion Fitzpatrick also called it “a bit weird” and “disappointing.”
“It’s going to be odd seeing certain people, obviously, at Wentworth,” the Englishman said at this week’s Tour Championship. “That is going to be a bit weird, and obviously it’s a little bit disappointing. But they won their little thing.
“But yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens. Obviously they are [the DP World Tour] not quite in as strong a position as the PGA Tour are in terms of regulations or whatever it is. Yeah, I guess we’ll just have to see how it plays out.”
LIV players are currently still allowed to tee it up on the DP World Tour after Ian Poulter and other LIV players had their Scottish Open bans “temporarily stayed” after taking legal action against the DP World Tour.
Fitzpatrick, who has been a staunch supporter of the traditional tours, supports the requirement to play in certain PGA Tour events after the tour announced wholesale changes earlier this week amid the LIV Golf threat.
“I do, yeah [like the idea of committing to events]. I don’t really have an issue with it,” he said. “At the end of the day, in my opinion, you’ve just got to suck it up. If you want things to be better, that’s the way it’s going to have to be, and I’m all in on that. I’ve got no issues.
“Sometimes you’ve got to give a little, but yeah, some weeks I might not enjoy those mandatory events, but I’m more than happy to do it.”