In a sign that the strategic alliance struck up by the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour to stamp out the threat of a rival league is still intact, LIV Golf players have been banned from participating in this week’s Scottish Open.
The DP World Tour had yet to discipline members who participated in the Saudi-funded breakaway circuit’s inaugural event in London earlier this month. But according to multiple reports, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley is barring Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell and others from the event, which is co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour, and fining them over $100,000.
Additionally, LIV Golf members won’t be welcome at two other co-productions, the Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship. However, the former European Tour is still allowing LIV players to compete in its own events.
“Many members I have spoken to in recent weeks expressed the viewpoint that those who have chosen this route have not only disrespected them and our tour, but also the meritocratic ecosystem of professional golf that has been the bedrock of our game for the past half a century and which will also be the foundation upon which we build the next 50 years,” Pelley said in a statement. “Their actions are not fair to the majority of our membership and undermine the tour.”
Brooks Koepka, whose recent defection from the PGA Tour marked a sudden departure from his previous position on the startup league, was also scheduled to compete in the Scottish Open.
The LIV Golf Series resumes with its first stop on an American swing this week at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland, Ore. Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed are among the former PGA Tour members expected to debut.
