The management of the PGA Tour has decided to suspend all golfers who will take part in the tournaments of the new LIV Golf Invitational series. For players who are members of the PGA Tour, this means that they will not be able to start at PGA Tour events. Commissioner Jay Monahan announced this in a letter to all members of the organization.
The premiere tournament of the new lucrative series funded by Saudi Arabia started today in London and at the start are, among others, the star Americans Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.
Each of the eight scheduled events is set to receive a $ 25 million grant, more than the most generous PGA Tour event. The head of LIV is former world number one Greg Norman, who accuses the PGA Tour of monopoly behavior.
The PGA Tour has previously rejected players’ requests to participate in the competition and has now filled the threat with disciplinary action. The penalty also includes a ban on participating in the President’s Cup, in which the US and the rest of the world will compete in a two-year cycle and at which South Africans Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace were to play as players from the London tournament in Charlotte in September. From the starting field of 48 players, the suspension concerns 17 of them.
“Participation in the tournament (LIV) is against our rules,” said Monahan. “These players have chosen this themselves, motivated by financial reasons, but they cannot claim the same benefits from PGA Tour membership,” he added.
In response, the LIV management said the measure would cause a split in world golf. “The announcement of the PGA Tour is vindictive and will widen the gap between the Tour and its members. It is worrying that the PGA, which should actually offer players the opportunity to participate in tournaments, is preventing them from doing so. This is certainly not the last word,” LIV officials said in declaration.
The penalty does not apply to major tournaments because they do not run the PGA Tour. Therefore, there is no danger of absent players at the US Open next week. This was confirmed on Wednesday by the United States Golf Association (USGA), explaining that it would not be fair to change the previously set conditions of participation, especially for players who have an automatically secured start.
Some players have resigned ahead of the PGA Tour, including Johnson, another American, Kevin Na, and a Spaniard, Sergio Garcia. According to the AP agency, there are already nine such golfers.
