As soon as the Boston tournament ended, the LIV players who decided to line up at the start of the BMW Championship in Wentworth flew by private jet to reach London and attend the AGM of the DP World Tour
Dp, statements
The week has just started and the first tensions are being felt in Wentworth.
Keith Pelley may not have expected to be accountable to Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood or Ian Pouter. According to James Corrigan of The Telegraph newspaper, a number of players – including Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood – attended the DP World Tour Annual General Meeting and wanted to know more about the “strategic alliance” that the European Tour has formed with the PGA Tour, and about the penalties they might face.
LIV players have blamed Pelley for the fact that the DP World Tour is now just a stepping stone to the PGA Tour. “We didn’t ask all the questions we wanted because Keith Pelley kept answering that given the fact that there is a judicial investigation in progress he could not give us an answer”, explained the ‘One.
Two. Tensions are high ahead of this week’s DP World Tour flagship tournament in Surrey, with 18 LIV ‘rebels’ at the start making it the largest contingent of ‘dissident’ golfers in a regular tournament since inception of the circuit financed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) and directed by Greg Norman.
Restrictions have been imposed on them, they are excluded from the pro-am, and are forbidden to wear clothes in the colors of the LIV. Former world No. 1 Martin Kaymer withdrew from the list of participants saying he was “not welcome”
The European Tour was created by the Professional Golfers’ Association, based in England, and the responsibility for its management was transferred to the independent organization PGA European Tour in 1984. Most of the tournaments on the three European Tour tours are takes place in Europe, but in recent years an increasing number of tournaments have also been organized in other parts of the world.
The PGA European Tour is a player-controlled organization whose primary purpose is to maximize the financial income of professional players participating in tournaments. It is a limited liability company run by professionals, but controlled by the players through a board composed of 12 members elected from past and present players, and a committee that oversees the tournaments of 14 active players.
Since 2007 the chairman of the board has been Neil Coles, while the chairman of the committee is Thomas Bjørn. Almost all tournaments are played in Western Europe and the most lucrative of these are those played in the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and Spain.
Only one tournament is held in Eastern Europe beyond the old Iron Curtain, the Russian Open. The PGA European Tour also organizes the Ryder Cup in collaboration with the PGA of America.
