PGA bans 17 playing in Saudi league
ST. ALBANS, England — It was only after they hit their first shots Thursday that the professional golfers taking part in the new Saudi-financed LIV Golf Invitational Series would have learned how high the stakes they were playing for really were.
Moments after the players set off down the fairways for the first time at the exclusive Centurion Club, located just outside London, the PGA Tour suspended 17 of them and declared they were “no longer eligible to participate” in events on the American-based tour or any of its affiliates.
The punishment had been expected, but it also served as a warning: Any player that joins the nascent league in the future, the PGA Tour’s commissioner said in a letter to the competition’s members, could expect the same sort of banishment.
“These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons,” the commissioner, Jay Monahan, wrote in a two-page letter to tour players that oozed contempt for the rebel tour and its players. “But they can’t demand the same PGA Tour membership benefits, considerations, opportunities and platform as you. That expectation disrespects you, our
fans and our partners.”
Before the event at the Centurion Club, a majority of players who had signed on with LIV Golf, including PGA Tour veterans Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Na and Sergio García, said they had resigned from the PGA Tour, perhaps to avoid a suspension or lifetime ban. But Monahan’s letter said they faced excommunication anyway.
LIV Golf organizers, who are expecting another wave of players to sign on to what is now the richest golf tour in history before the next stop of the eightevent series in Oregon later this month, quickly fired back with a statement of their own.
“Today’s announcement by the PGA Tour is vindictive, and it deepens the divide between the Tour and its members,” the LIV Golf
statement said. “It’s troubling that the Tour, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing. This certainly is not the last word on this topic. The era of free agency is beginning as we are proud to have a full field of players joining us in London, and beyond.”
Some of the LIV Golf players, still completing their rounds after the event’s shotgun start sent every competitor off at the
same time, only found out about the suspensions as
they headed back toward the clubhouse.
Britain’s Ian Poulter insisted he and the others in the field had not done anything wrong, despite participating without the PGA Tour’s waiver. “Of course I’m going to appeal,” Poulter told reporters. “It makes no sense how I’ve played the game of golf for all this time, I’ve had two tour cards and the ability to play all over the world. What’s wrong with that?”
Phil Mickelson, whose participation has aroused the most interest and much controversy, refused to comment, saying he was not ready to discuss the PGA’S actions. Others, though, were more forthright, convinced that their banishment was related to golf’s established powers fearing competition. Graeme Mcdowell, who resigned from the PGA Tour 30 minutes before striking his first ball in the new tournament, said he had begun consulting lawyers in anticipation of what was to come.
“We’ve spoken to the lawyers. We have the LIV legal team which are fantastic. We have our own legal team. Some players have decided out of an abundance of caution they were going to resign and just stay away from any litigation,” Mcdowell said.
The PGA Tour memo did not make clear how it would deal in the future with the players who have been lured to commit to playing on the LIV Golf circuit or those tempted to join them by the new tour’s huge appearance fees and a format that guarantees every entrant six-figure payouts at each event.