Lee Westwood Set For Senior PGA Championship Debut

Lee Westwood is making his Senior PGA Championship debut this week and only his second over-50s Major appearance after last year's US Senior Open.

Westwood isn't the only LIV player in the field, either, with defending champion Richard Bland teeing it up at Congressional Country Club.

Westwood, now 52, has almost exclusively played in LIV Golf events since joining the Saudi PIF-backed circuit from its inception in 2022.

Since 2023, the Englishman has teed it up in the Asian Tour's International Series England event, which he withdrew from, as well as the 2024 US Senior Open at Newport Country Club, where he finished T31st.

In the LIV Golf League, where he co-captains the Majesticks GC team alongside Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson, the former World No.1 has a best finish of T25 in Riyadh so far this season.

His best result last year was a T3 in Nashville in a campaign where he ended 36th in the standings.

We believe Westwood received an invite into this week's field.

He'll be aiming to emulate Richard Bland's achievement last year, where the Englishman shot an eight-under-par final round at Michigan's The Club at Harbor Shores to beat Richard Green by three strokes.

Both Westwood and Bland are unable to play in the Senior Open, which takes place at Sunningdale this year, having not paid their DP World Tour fines for playing in LIV Golf events without a conflicting events release.

Westwood's fines are said to be £850,000 (around $1.136m) and that means he is unable to play in the over-50s version of the Open Championship because it is part-owned by the DP World Tour.

The only one I can't play in is the Senior British Open Championship because it's half owned by the European Tour," he told Peter Finch's Rough Cut Podcast last year.

"The R&A won't put their foot down and say 'no, this is an Open Championship. Lee and Richard Bland should be able to play.' They pander to the European Tour and say that if we pay our fines - I think my outstanding fines are at £850,000 or something like that.

"Well, I'm not paying them because I disagree with the way they've been handed out. So that's why I can't play in the Seniors Open Championship, but I think the fans lose out there, personally."