DP World Tour FINES and BANS 26 players for competing in LIV Golf events
DP World Tour says fines range from £12,500 to £100,00 for each breach and a suspension of up to eight tournaments.
The DP World Tour has confirmed it has fined and banned 26 of its players who have competed in both LIV Golf and Asian Tour events.
According to a DP World Tour statement that was sent to GolfMagic on Thursday night, the sanctions are based on individual cases with "fines ranging from £12,500 to £100,000 for each breach and a suspension of up to eight tournaments."
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All 26 DP World Tour players will not be reinstated until they have paid their fines, from which point their suspensions would apply.
The sanctions relate to breaches in the period 22 June 2022 to 2 April 2023.
Related: DP World Tour forced to apologise for nearly ruining player's career
Taking a closer look at the DP World Tour statement, which you can read in full at the bottom of this article, suspensions will only apply to regular season events so all players will be able to compete in the major championships should they be eligible.
The first event where a suspension can come into play is at the Porsche European Open from June 1 to 4.
Related: DP World Tour pro fined £675k and suspended for eight events
"Players who have resigned their membership will not be eligible for reinstatement unless and until they pay their fines and their suspensions will apply from then onwards," the DP World Tour confirms in a statement.
"Further sanctions for breaches of the Conflicting Tournament Regulation in events which occurred subsequent to April 2, 2023, will be considered in due course."
News broke last week that Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Richard Bland had all torn up their DP World Tour cards.
This was after a court arbitration hearing sided with the European-based tour in its legal battle against 12 LIV Golf players who had appealed against being fined £100,000 and suspended from the Scottish Open for having played in LIV Golf's inaugural event in June 2022 without permission.
Garcia is said to be the only player not to have paid their initial £100k fine.
The latest update from the DP World Tour follows news that the Telegraph broke about '500k fines' earlier this week.
The Telegraph believes a number of other players on LIV Golf will soon resign from the DP World Tour such as Branden Grace and Charl Schwartzel.
Today's announcement from the DP World Tour details further sanctions imposed for having played in the seven proceeding LIV Golf events in 2022, as well as those contested before the arbitration panel's verdict was reached in April.
Here's the DP World Tour statement in full:
These events occurred in the period from June 22, 2022 to April 2, 2023 – the day before the independent panel appointed by Sport Resolutions released its decision in relation to players competing without releases in the first two LIV Golf events in 2022; at the Centurion Club in England and at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon.
That decision determined that the DP World Tour had acted ‘entirely reasonably in refusing releases’ for those events and that the Conflicting Tournament Regulation was ‘reasonable and proportionate to the Tour’s continued operation as a professional golf tour’.
The panel also held that the DP World Tour had ‘a legitimate and justifiable interest’ in enforcing its regulations with the imposition of sanctions such as fines and suspensions.
In total, 26 players were today informed individually of the sanctions applicable to them based on the specific conflicting tournaments they each played in, as a DP World Tour member, without being granted a release.
These sanctions include fines and, where appropriate, tournament suspensions. The sanctions imposed were determined on a case-by-case basis; acknowledging differences between the events in terms of the impact on the DP World Tour’s broadcast partners, sponsors and stakeholders.
Where fines were issued to players they ranged from £12,500 to £100,000 for each individual breach of the Conflicting Tournament Regulation.
The total cumulative suspension imposed on any single player for breaches in the period June 22, 2022, to April 2, 2023 is a maximum of eight DP World Tour tournaments, comprising a combination of one or two week suspensions.
The suspensions imposed relate to regular season DP World Tour events (i.e. excluding Major Championships) and will run consecutively, effective from the Porsche European Open from June 1-4, 2023 – the first tournament chronologically on the DP World Tour schedule whose entry list remains open as of today.
Players who have resigned their membership will not be eligible for reinstatement unless and until they pay their fines and their suspensions will apply from then onwards.
Further sanctions for breaches of the Conflicting Tournament Regulation in events which occurred subsequent to April 2, 2023, will be considered in due course.
Andy first joined the brand on a month's work experience back in April 2011, and he now assumes the Editor role. When Andy joined GolfMagic it was a small site with potential.
