By Martyn Herman
(Reuters) – The bitter power struggle shaking golf to its core will continue in front of packed galleries at this week’s BMW PGA Championship with players on both sides of the divide battling it out on the lush Wentworth fairways.
A stellar field has assembled for the DP World Tour’s (formerly European Tour) blue riband tournament near London, but some of the most familiar faces could receive a frosty welcome, on and off the course.
Seventeen players who have jumped ship to the breakaway LIV Tour will tee it up at Wentworth, including Ryder Cup stalwarts such as Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia.
The Saudi Arabia-backed LIV series, headed by Greg Norman and offering mind-boggling prize pots, kicked off to much fanfare near London in June and earned winner Charl Schwartzel a record cheque of $4 million.
It has steadily added quality to its roster, with Open champion Cameron Smith the latest marque name to jump ship and join the likes of Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, and is clearly posing a serious threat to golf’s status quo.
The powerful PGA Tour has already banned those taking part in LIV events but the attempts of Europe’s DP World Tour to follow suit have so far been unsuccessful with LIV players still eligible to compete at its showcase events pending a court hearing next year.
It means five-time major champion Rory McIlroy, one of the fiercest critics of the LIV Tour, will come face to face with some of his former buddies this week at Wentworth when the conversations might be interesting to say the least.
“I hate what it’s doing to the game of golf,” the Northern Irishman said of LIV recently, adding that it would be “hard to stomach” playing alongside them at Wentworth.
“That just doesn’t sit right with me,” McIlroy, who will receive huge support this week, added.
ANGRY PLAYERS
Paul McGinley, Europe’s 2014 Ryder Cup captain, went even further, accusing the LIV defectors of feeling ‘entitled’.
“The key to the anger felt by the ordinary, non-LIV members of the DP World Tour is that these guys who have taken the big money from LIV think they’re entitled to come back and take the places of players who support our tour week-in, week-out,” he told The Times.
“The LIV players don’t turn up for two or three million euros tournaments in the Czech Republic or Switzerland, but they come for the six million pounds tournament at Wentworth.
“This has led to a lot of resentment. (DP World Tour CEO) Keith (Pelley) has spoken to virtually every one of our players. Not one wants the LIV guys in our tournaments.”
American Billy Horschel, the defending champion at Wentworth, has accused LIV players returning to play elite DP World Tour events of being “hypocrites”.
LIV players have not been invited to feature in Wednesday’s Pro-Am at Wentworth and Germany’s Martin Kaymer has opted out of the tournament.
But Briton Poulter and Spaniard Garcia remain bullish.
“What I’m going to do is support the European Tour and that’s all I can do,” Spaniard Garcia said. “Whoever doesn’t like it, too bad for them.”
While the DP World Tour can struggle for exposure, this year’s BMW PGA Championship at least will be centre stage, with the friction between some of the players an intriguing sub-plot.
Organisers will hope a LIV player does not claim the winners’ cheque at the $8 million event, and with the likes of McIlroy, U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Horschel in the field they may get their wish.
But whatever the outcome on the course, what happens inside the clubhouse may be just as compelling.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
