European Tour fines Saudi golf defectors £100,000 each in battle for game’s future

The European Tour is punishing British golfer Lee Westwood and other players with fines of £100,000 each for joining the game’s breakaway competition backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund that is threatening the existing structure of the world game.

The move aligns the US and European circuits against the LIV Golf series, in which Saudi’s $620bn Public Investment Fund (PIF), the majority shareholder, has invested $2bn.

It also confirms that the European Tour is siding with the US PGA Tour in the battle for the future of the game against the Saudi-backed competition, which is attempting to lure top players from the established circuits.

The LIV Golf series, which is led by chief executive Greg Norman, former world number one player, has paid big signing-on fees to attract star players such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.

The competition has been named LIV as that is the Roman numeral for 54, the number of holes per tournament, which will be played in three rounds of 18 holes, instead of four rounds of 72 in traditional competitions.

The European Tour, which is known as the DP World Tour as it is sponsored by Dubai-based DP World, said it is hitting members with the fines for playing at LIV Golf’s opening event at the private Centurion Club on the outskirts of London earlier this month.

Proceeds from the fines will be added to prize money at DP World tournaments and charitable causes.

Players who turned out for the LIV event will be suspended from the Genesis Scottish Open, Barbasol Championship in Kentucky and the Barracuda Championship in California, all being staged in July, the European Tour said.

The US PGA Tour suspended members for joining LIV on the first day of the Centurion Club event.

The European Tour, which used to stage the Saudi International tournament, did not take immediate action.

DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley accused the LIV golfers of working to “undermine” the circuit.

“Every action anyone takes in life comes with a consequence and it is no different in professional sport, especially if a person chooses to break the rules,” said Pelley. “That is what has occurred here with several of our members.”

Although the PIF has invested across a variety of sports, including the £305mn acquisition of English Premier League team Newcastle United, its expansion into golf has provoked a strong reaction from the existing tours because of the perceived threat to their competitions.

Earlier this week, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan accused LIV of attempting to “buy the game of golf”.

“If this is an arms race and if the only weapons are dollar bills, the PGA Tour can’t compete with a foreign monarchy spending billions of dollars trying to buy the game of golf,” Monahan said.

LIV poses a threat to the dominance of the PGA Tour, which historically has offered bigger prize money than rivals.

The European Tour was a competitor until the two circuits formed a strategic alliance in November 2020, when the PGA Tour agreed to invest $85mn for a 15 per cent stake in the European Tour’s media production company.