DP World Tour wins legal battle against 12 players for participation in LIV Golf

A three-strong arbitration panel heard five days of arguments from lawyers for a group of LIV players and those representing the DP World Tour in February in an attempt to clarify the playing status of the former on the latter.

The case arose when players requested “conflicting event” releases in order to play the inaugural LIV Golf event outside London last June.

Those requests were denied but the players competed at Centurion Club regardless and were fined £100,000 and suspended from the Scottish Open.

Initially Ian Poulter, Adrian Otaegui and Justin Harding appealed against the decision and the punishments were stayed, pending a substantive appeal, allowing the players to compete in DP World Tour events throughout, with Otaegui winning the Andalucia Masters in October.

The number of appellants then grew to 16, but Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Otaegui withdrew from the case, which was heard behind closed doors by Sports Resolutions UK.

Announcing its decision on Thursday, the panel concluded that the players had committed “serious breaches of the Code of Behaviour of the DPWT Regulations” by playing in LIV’s London and Portland events, despite their release requests having been refused.

Their appeals have been dismissed and the players ordered to pay the £100,000 fines within 30 days.

DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said: “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.

“However, with the clarity provided by today’s decision, we look forward to continuing to focus on our 2023 global schedule, whilst also continuing to plan for 2024 with the valued support of our many partners and stakeholders.

“We will now carefully consider the details of today’s decision with our Board, our Tournament Committee and our legal advisors and take the appropriate action in due course.”

It remains to be seen if the likes of Poulter and Lee Westwood will appeal against the verdict or give up their membership of the DP World Tour, thereby ending their involvement in the Ryder Cup.

Pelley confirmed that, under a regulation introduced in 2018, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer can not become captains or vice-captains after failing to maintain their membership last season.

Current members can still qualify or receive a wild card, but Pelley added: “We all know they have commitments to play on another tour which conflict with DPWT qualifying events and that will make it harder to qualify, but it’s also very important to understand that decision has been their choice.

“We’ve never banned them, but this is their choice. If they adhere to the consequences, if they pay the fines, if they live to the consequences for breaching that we impose on them in the future, then we’ll welcome them back.

“I have no problem with them playing at all.”

In an interview on the Tour’s official Twitter account, Pelley dismissed the theory that it could have been advantageous to lose the arbitration case to effectively attract star LIV players to DP World Tour events.

“I vehemently disagree,” he said. “That argument has been formed to suit the needs of those that have pushed it, but the opposite has happened.

“Players haven’t played their national opens because they have had contractual commitments to play on another tour.

“When they’ve played, and it’s been so very little, they have played in high profile events with large OWGR points. They have certainly not supported the other events on our tour.

“If the idea is that if the decision went the other way it would have opened the door to play more, I don’t buy it. That door has been Open since last July.”

In response to the verdict, Matthew Schwartz of Gibson Dunn, counsel to LIV Golf, said: “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.

“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.”