The internal feud between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf appears to be over, but Henrik Stenson is still out of a job.
Stenson was replaced as the European Team captain for the upcoming Ryder Cup this fall after he opted to join the Saudi Arabian-backed venture. Throughout that process of replacing him with Luke Donald for the biennial event in Italy, Stenson said after the British Open on Sunday, nobody would talk to him.
“I’m just disappointed that with everything that came out, because there was a big willingness on my part to sit down and talk long before this thing got to where it got to,” Stenson told the New York Post’s Mark Cannizzaro. “That’s my disappointment — that there were certain people, without naming names, that didn’t want to sit down and take those meetings.
“And, as a consequence, I feel like we ended up in all of this that could have been avoided. But we live and we learn.”
Stenson was stripped of his Ryder Cup captaincy last July, when both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour were actively fighting back against LIV Golf. Stenson played in five Ryder Cups himself, and being named a Ryder Cup captain is one of the biggest honors in the sport. Europe then named Donald as his replacement a few weeks later.
Stenson won six times on the PGA Tour in his career and 11 times on the DP World Tour. He won the British Open in 2016, and finished T13 on Sunday at Royal Liverpool. Stenson was one of several high-profile golfers to resign from the DP World Tour in favor of LIV Golf, joining Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter, among others. Those resignations eliminated them from consideration for the European team, either as a player or in a vice captain role.
“I’ve played in five Ryder Cups and was vice captain in one and there’s always going to be some great memories from the camaraderie, and some of those camaraderie are still there,” Stenson said. “I’m not alone in this; the guys that I would have had as my vice captains, we kind of all ended up in the same boat.”
It’s still unclear what the American team will do regarding LIV Golf members, although team captain Zach Johnson said he would make his decision on that front independent of what Donald will do. Brooks Koepka is currently ranked No. 4 in the Ryder Cup standings, which would earn him an automatic bid on the team.
While it was easy to understand the decision to prohibit Stenson and others from participating in the Ryder cup initially, the three golf leagues have since announced plans to form a partnership. There is still plenty to be ironed out — there are several investigations into the proposed deal, and plenty of people aren’t happy about it — but the once incredibly tense fight in the sport has died down significantly.
That’s a big part of why Stenson is upset now, even though he knows there’s nothing he can do about it.
“A lot of these decisions are not on my plate,” Stenson said. “We’ll see where it ends up — from Ryder Cup to memberships on DP World Tour and PGA Tour and all the rest of it. I’m just sitting tight right now.”
The Ryder Cup is scheduled to start on Sept. 29 from the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club outside of Rome.