Report: DP World Tour Wins Crucial Panel Hearing Against LIV Golf Players

The DP World Tour has reportedly won the Sports Resolutions arbitration hearing that took place in London in February.

The week-long panel hearing related to the DP World Tour's position in suspending players and handing them £100,000 fines for going against declined release requests for playing the LIV Golf debut event at the Centurion Club.

"The DP World Tour has won the Sports Resolutions arbitration hearing against LIV players, whose £100,000 fines for playing in the inaugural LIV London event have been upheld," The Times' Tom Kershaw revealed on Twitter.

"They will be eligible for further fines and suspensions going forwards."

A verdict was reportedly delayed until April-June time, with it said to be announced on the Sports Resolutions website. As of yet, no verdict has been made public. It was initially expected to be announced on the Sports Resolutions website two-to-three weeks after the hearing was conducted at the start of February.

The Times report that a verdict will be officially announced "as early as Thursday afternoon" - just as the opening round of The Masters gets underway at Augusta National, where 18 LIV Golf players are in the field.

If the DP World Tour has indeed won, it means that it's the end of the road in the Ryder Cup for the likes of record points scorer Sergio Garcia and other legendary European names such as Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer.

The likes of Paul Casey, Thomas Pieters, Bernd Wiesberger, Sam Horsfield and Laurie Canter would also see their DP World Tour and Ryder Cup hopes ended.

It could also mean that LIV players looking for starts on the DP World Tour in order to earn world ranking points will likely not be able to. Patrick Reed, an honorary life member of the DP World Tour, may no longer be allowed to play on the circuit and big names such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau may only have the Asian Tour and golf's four Majors available to them in order to earn OWGR points.

Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald will now know for sure that his team for September's clash in Rome will not include any LIV Golf players, with his 12-man team made up of six automatic qualifiers and six wildcard picks.

A spokesperson for the DP World Tour said: “Out of respect for the confidentiality of the process conducted by Sport Resolutions, we will make no comment on any aspect of the arbitration until the decision is formally announced.”

We wait to hear an official verdict.