26 LIV Golf rebels who played without permission handed hefty fines and bans

11 May 2023 , 22:00

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26 LIV Golfers have been punished by the DP World Tour (Image: Getty Images)

Twenty-six golfers have been fined up to £100,000 by the DP World Tour for playing in LIV Golf events without permission.

The Tour has also handed out suspensions of up to eight events after an arbitration panel ruled in their favour following an attempt from 12 LIV golfers to appeal sanctions imposed on them after they played in LIV's inaugural event without permission.

The Tour initially fined the golfers £100,000 and suspended them from playing at the Scottish Open, but this was appealed and they were allowed to continue playing in events. However, following the ruling the Tour has now sanctioned a number of golfers and released a statement detailing their punishments.

"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," the statement read.

"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.

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"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.

Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood have resigned their DP World Tour memberships (Getty Images)

"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.

The likes of Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Richard Bland and Sergio Garcia all resigned their DP World Tour memberships earlier this month in response to the arbitration ruling.

The Tour added: "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."

Matthew Cooper