'Punishing Players For Playing Golf' - LIV Golf Responds To DP World Tour Hearing

Following the news that the DP World Tour has won February's arbitration hearing against a number of its members who play in the LIV Golf League, the Saudi-backed series has responded to the possible sanctions which could be put in place.

Matthew Schwartz of Gibson Dunn, counsel to LIV Golf, stated that: “We disagree with the procedural opinion from the DP World Tour’s arbitral body, which has failed to address in reasonable substance why competitive forces must be upheld. By punishing players for playing golf, the DPWT is seeking to unreasonably control players and it is the sport and fans that suffer. There are no winners."

He went on to add that "this is a sacred week in the global sports calendar and the on-course competition is what matters. LIV remains focused on its decades-long vision to enhance the game and is looking forward to its upcoming tournament in Australia in front of 70,000 fans.”

On Thursday morning, Sport Resolutions announced that it has upheld the DP World Tour’s conflicting tournament release regulation and its ability to sanction members who breached it. 

Furthermore, appeals brought by those members have been dismissed, making it likely that we will never see the likes of Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter featuring on the DP World Tour, or indeed, the Ryder Cup, ever again.

The sanctions surround the LIV Golf Invitational (London) and LIV Portland tournaments and, following the news from Sport Resolutions, DP World Tour CEO, Keith Pelley stated that: "We welcome today’s decision by Sport Resolutions which upholds our regulations and our ability to administer them. We are delighted that the panel recognised we have a responsibility to our full membership to do this and also determined that the process we followed was fair and proportionate.

“In deciding the level of these sanctions last June, we were simply administering the regulations which were created by our members and which each of them signed up to. It is, of course, regrettable that resources, both financial and staffing, which could have been otherwise deployed across our organisation, have been impacted by this lengthy arbitration process."

LIV Golf's next tournament will take place on the 21st - 23rd April at The Grange Golf Club in Australia, with the league then moving to Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore the week after. Because of the sanctions, it means that LIV players may rescind their DP World Tour memberships to avoid further fines and suspensions.