Lee Westwood comes out swinging at 'brainwashed' LIV Golf critics: "Hypocrites"
Lee Westwood has hit out at his critics, suggesting those who said he was disloyal for joining the breakaway LIV Golf League are 'hypocrites'.
Lee Westwood has labelled those who called him 'disloyal' for breaking away from the establishment and joining LIV Golf as 'hypocrites'.
Westwood made the comments in the most recent edition of the Fairway to Heaven podcast with Su-Ann Heng and Jerry Foltz.
The Englishman was among the first wave of players to join the Saudi-backed tour in June 2022.
Westwood, along with a host of former Ryder Cup Europe legends, were at the receiving end of unrelenting criticism.
"After 30 years of being a professional Sportsman I've learned not to give a ---- what anybody thinks," he said.
"Disloyalty is such a big word it’s a it's a word that has carries so much weight and it almost accuses your integrity as a person, which to me is so offensive."
He added: "I've been a member of the European tour for nearly 30 years and I've won in the U.S. twice, didn't take up membership there, you know, stayed on the European Tour.
"I enjoyed playing in Europe and that's where I felt like I belonged.
"I stayed in Europe and played European tour events, to support them and you know add to those fields I suppose so I clearly have a very different idea about loyalty than people who have said stupid things."
Westwood said his critics were 'brainwashed' by individuals with financial ties to the PGA Tour.
"I think a lot of those people are now starting to understand that they were being brainwashed by certain people with just purely financial motivations in their mind," he said.
Westwood's comments come at a time when the future of elite men's professional golf is still very much up in the air.
We are led to believe the PGA Tour are continuing their discussions with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to ratify last June's framework agreement.
There were reports the two sides had exchanged terms earlier in the summer and all that was left to do was for an army of lawyers on both sides to dot the i's and cross the t's.
The PIF bankrolls the LIV Golf League.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Westwood also lamented LIV players' eligibility to compete in events outside their circuit.
He also wasn't happy that he and Richard Bland weren't able to compete at last month's Senior Open at Carnoustie because of their ties to LIV.
The Senior Open is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and Royal & Ancient.
Their frustrations were moot, given that the major conflicted with LIV's event in Staffordshire.
Bland told GolfMagic last week he wouldn't have asked LIV for a tournament release if he was eligible.
He said it would open up a can of worms.
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