(LONDON) British golfer Lee Westwood said on Thursday that the European Tour, which he left to join rival competition LIV, had become just a “supply line” for the American US PGA Tour. .
By resigning from the DP World Tour on Wednesday with his compatriot Ian Poulter and the Spaniard Sergio Garcia, the three golfers have de facto given up representing Europe in the Ryder Cup, the biannual match against the United States which will be held in Rome. later in the year.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Westwood, 50, criticized the alliance formed between the US PGA Tour and Europe’s DP World Tour in response to the emergence of the Saudi-funded alternative circuit LIV.
“I’ve been a member of both the European Tour and the PGA Tour, but I’ve always said that I was first and foremost a member of the European Tour and that I was worried that the American Tour would bully (the Europeans) and make everything to ensure his world domination,” explained Westwood, former world number one.
“And now, in my view, the European Tour has fallen to the PGA Tour and […] it’s just a supply chain to supply it,” he added.
“The top 10 (European) players who aren’t already exempt this year, have a path to the PGA Tour — that’s selling off those talents. This had never been the policy of the (European) circuit before this “strategic alliance”, “he further argued.
He also explained that he does not want to be subject to fines or suspensions because of his participation in LIV tournaments.
Last month, an arbitration commission appointed by the London Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the European circuit. The latter had excluded from three competitions twelve players who had participated, without authorization, in the first tournament of the rival circuit and had imposed on them fines of 100,000 pounds ($170,000).
“I paid my fine out of respect for the refereeing commission and then took that power away from the circuit. I really want to move on,” Westwood concluded.
