Lee Westwood And Ian Poulter Explain Decision To Pay DP World Tour Fines

Ahead of the LIV Golf United Kingdom event at JCB Golf Club, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter revealed the reasoning behind their decision to settle the fines they owed to the DP World Tour.

The Majesticks co-captains joined LIV Golf for its controversial inception back in June 2022 and racked up fines for playing in competing events without permission from what was formerly the European Tour.

They eventually resigned their memberships in 2023 to avoid incurring more financial penalties but have now settled their debts.

Explaining why, Poulter said: “The fines were always going to be paid at some point, and that was down to myself and Lee to choose when that time was right.

“Look, the European Tour and LIV Golf and the acceptance of it all, it's all in a very different position today than what it was four years ago when we were being fined the way we were. There are no fines in place today for guys that are playing on LIV Golf, and that's a massive change.

“When you look certainly how Jon [Rahm] and Tyrrell [Hatton] were treated back in the day, to still be able to play European Tour golf and play in Ryder Cups. Look, things are moving forward in the right direction.”

Does this mean Poulter will some DP World Tour events to his schedule in the future?

“I'm not sure yet, to be honest with you,” he added. “I'm still hopeful that things work out in the right way for me to play a number of different tournaments at different times.

“My exemptions are being burnt year in, year out right now which is unfortunate because they took the opportunity in November, if you didn't rejoin they would reduce your exemption years year in, year out. It's a shame they did that. It's a shame they devalued the legends category from 5A to 11A, which isn't helpful to get in certain tournaments.

“We'll see. If some of the tournaments directors would really like me to go and play in their tournament and it doesn't compete, they know my number. I've played those tournaments before. If they want to give me a call, then let's have a chat.”

Westwood had always been fairly adamant he would not pay his fines to the DP World Tour, but that was before Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund decided to stop backing LIV Golf at the end of this season.

“Just to follow on from what Ian said, what it does is gives us options having them paid,” Westwood said. “When the current financial backers of the tour are talking about pulling out and we're being indemnified, it just makes sense to get them paid straight away before they do pull out. That's really why we had them paid when we did.

“But I still don't agree with the fines because we are being completely treated differently to the people playing on this tour. I think the fines were excessive, as well, when you consider what other people did and how much they got fined historically.”