DP World Tour won its legal battle against Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter a few weeks ago. This duo joined LIV Golf and felt the consequences of their moves. Former captain of Europe in the 2014 Ryder Cup, Paul McGinley, commented on this outcome.
He feels sorry for Ian Poulter, but also for Westwood. Both had their chance, but they decided that LIV Golf was a better option for them. McGinley put a special emphasis on Poulter. “Next to Seve [Ballesteros], he’s probably been the most influential player from a European perspective in Ryder Cups,” he said, as quoted by mirror.co.uk “It’s phenomenal what he’s done for us.
And it’s sad that he’s probably not going to be a captain, or certainly not in the foreseeable future. Everybody had him down to be captain in New York. I’m not going to close the door to that, but it’s odds-against now.
There’s consequences with big decisions. And these are big decisions. The Ryder Cup is partly owned by the European tour. These guys are involved in an entity that is now harming the European tour, financially. So, unfortunately, they’ve removed themselves from the Ryder Cup, as far as I’m concerned.”
Paul McGinley and his reaction
McGinley was brutally honest and revealed that he would probably do the same if he were in their shoes.
In spite of that, there are a number of things that he would have done differently if he had been given the chance. “You know, in all probability, I may well have gone to LIV at 46, 47 years of age. If I’m offered $20, $30 million to go and play in a rival league, I’d have done it.
But I wouldn’t have done the LIV Tour then come back and played the European Tour as well. I think that’s greedy. You can’t be on both buses. As great as those players were from Ryder Cups, and as great as they have been for European Tour and, you know, they’re personal friends of mine, I have a disagreement with them.”
