DThe DP World Tour defends itself with fines and suspensions – and with Düsseldorf’s Martin Kaymer it hits the most successful German golf pro after Bernhard Langer. The 38-year-old Rhinelander, who allegedly switched to Saudi Arabia-financed LIV Golf in June last year for a signing bonus of more than one million euros, will be excluded from the home game outside Hamburg.
The former world number one (eight weeks in spring 2011) had registered for the Porsche European Open, which takes place from June 1st to 4th on the Green Eagle Course in Winsen an der Luhe. But this exclusion is not only a hard blow for Kaymer. In addition to the German, the 45-year-old Englishman Paul Casey, who won this tournament in 2019 and is promoting the title sponsor as a brand ambassador, was also removed from the list of participants, a move that, according to the Guardian, also affects Porsche.
The English newspaper posted an article online with the headline ‘Porsche may withdraw support after DP World Tour suspends LIV gulf rebels’. An unnamed spokesman for the automaker is quoted as saying: “We are in talks with the organizer and the tour about the future of the event.”
But Dirk Glittenberg, the tournament director and managing director of the organizer UCom, denied in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the car manufacturer was thinking of withdrawing, especially since the bans did not come as a surprise. “I expected the DP World Tour to consistently enforce their rights. The Porsche European Open is the first tournament where she was able to start with the bans.”
Martin Kaymer said ab
According to Glittenberg, the fact that Kaymer and Casey, who missed out last year due to injuries, have now been suspended has little impact on the attractiveness of his event. “We are concentrating entirely on the German participants. For the first time, four German tournament winners will compete in a German tournament. Matti Schmid will also make a detour from the PGA Tour to visit us,” says Glittenberg. Since last June, Maximilian Kieffer from Düsseldorf, Yannik Paul from Viernheim, Marcel Siem from Rating and Nick Bachem from Cologne have won the DP World Tour.
While Casey is taking part in the second major of the year, the PGA Championship in Rochester (New York) from Thursday to Sunday, Kaymer canceled on Saturday. The Rhinelander, who won this major in 2010 and thus has a lifetime right to play, justifies his rejection with the fact that his operated left wrist cannot withstand three tournaments in a row. Because right in the week after the PGA Championship, all LIV golfers have to play in Bedminster (New Jersey) according to their contract.
As announced by the DP World Tour, Kaymer is among 16 professionals to pay the £100,000 fine for attending LIV’s first tournament in England in June. Only Sergio Garcia refuses, but the former European Tour will take legal action against the 43-year-old Spaniard. Since June 1, the traditional series has been implementing what the London arbitration court confirmed as lawful in early April.
Sergio Garcia has so far refused to pay the fine.
:
Image: AFP
The former European Tour, which has hosted tournaments since 1972, can fine and ban apostates who, contrary to the regulations of this series, participate in events of competing leagues, in this case LIV-Golf and their partner Asian Tour, without a permit. As Keith Pelley, the Canadian head of the DP World Tour, announced over the weekend, not only Kaymer and Casey were removed from the list of participants in the European Open, but a total of 26 professionals.
They have to pay a fine of between 25,000 and 100,000 pounds (around 28,500 and 114,000 euros) for every single breach of the regulations between June 2022 and April 2023. In total, LIV hosted eight tournaments during this period. Pelley left it open whether Kaymer and other renegades would be banned from further tournaments. The BMW International Open, the second tournament on the DP World Tour in Germany, will take place in Eichenried from June 22nd to 25th.
In order to avoid further fines, the Englishmen Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Richard Bland as well as Garcia have resigned from their membership. On Saturday, the Swede Stenson, who had already lost his job as European Ryder Cup captain because of his move to LIV, also handed in the so-called Tour Card. The DP World Tour made it clear that returning to the DP World Tour was not an option for the renegades until they paid their fines. At least for Kaymer, that shouldn’t be a problem. Although he has never had a top ten result at LIV, he has already earned more than two million euros in prize money.
