On Thursday, the DP World Tour published an official press release, concerning the sanctions against players who have violated the Regulations concerning participation in events in conflict with the tournaments of the Tour itself.
After Sport Resolutions of London concluded the sporting arbitration ruling in favor of the DP World Tour, CEO Keith Pelley had anticipated that, strengthened by the ruling of the sports justice which had recognized that the Tour had “a legitimate and justifiable interest” in the ‘enforcing its regulations through the imposition of sanctions such as fines and suspensions, the Board would analyze the individual positions of each player to decide what to do.
DP, statements
The DP World Tour has chosen to crack down on what it calls “rebels.” Beyond the £100,000 fine imposed on the 17 players who took part in the first LIV Golf event held at the Centurion Club in London in June last year, which gave rise to the immediately confirmed sports arbitration, the Board del Tour has gone further.
The players who will be fined are a total of twenty-six. Fines range from £12,500 to £100,000 for each breach of the Rules by participating in events that conflict with Tour tournaments. In addition to fines, fixed-term suspensions are also imposed (as opposed to the indefinite suspension imposed by the PGA Tour).
For the purposes of suspensions, the period taken into consideration to evaluate the violations is the one that goes from 22 June 2022 to 2 April 2023. The suspension of an individual player can extend to a maximum of eight tournaments on the DP World Tour, with a maximum of one or two consecutive weeks.
The suspensions will be applied starting from the Porsche European Open scheduled from 1 to 4 June (the first tournament with registrations still open). Any further sanctions relating to the period after 2 April 2023 will be assessed subsequently.
The official release of the DP World Tour had an almost immediate effect. Henrik Stenson presented his resignation from the ex-European Tour yesterday. “It’s sad to have reached this point, but unfortunately it is, and it certainly wasn’t unexpected” “They left me no other choice, so I resigned.” After Westwood, Poulter, Garcia and Bland, another pillar leaves the Tour. Another sad day, and not just for European golf.
