LIV Golf have fired back at the DP World Tour after a ruling that came as a crushing blow to the breakaway league…
LIV Golf has accused the DP World Tour of making a “clear attempt” to interfere in their bankruptcy hearing after the circuit confirmed it would refuse to accept the league’s players next season.
The DP World Tour will block any membership applications from players also wishing to play LIV 2.0, a proposed relaunched league that the league hopes to emerge after its restructuring process in 2027.
Guy Kinnings, the CEO of the DP World Tour, said that the hard line policy means “players need to make a choice” between the two tours next season.
And a lawyer representing LIV at a court hearing on Wednesday offered a dim view on a damaging development for the league’s future.
“We’re continuing to monitor this situation very closely, and we’re quite concerned by it, frankly,” attorney Rob Fitzgerald told the court.
“We’re reserving all rights and remedies and respect to these statements that are made. Frankly, the timing in particular strikes us as a clear attempt to interfere with our process, with our players, and potentially our reorganization writ large.
“And it also raises a lot of the same anti-competitive concerns that LIV has expressed previously regarding the way competing leagues have sought to box out and punish market participants – namely these players – from participating in LIV and really only LIV.
“Player freedom is the reason LIV Golf was created, and it’s the foundation of LIV Golf 2.0. It’s unfortunate that another tour is taking an opposite view and pressuring our players with a false choice. And again, we’re reserving all rights in this respect.”
The DP World Tour is not responding to Fitzgerald’s comments, but refers back to Kinnings’ explanation that was first given to BBC Sport on Monday.
“As we have said for many years, we have rules and regulations which are there to protect our tour and which our members must all abide by,” Kinnings said. “Players who are not willing to comply with our rules and regulations should not be seeking to join our tour.”
The DP World Tour’s move has made it challenging for LIV players to fill out their schedules next season, beyond the 10 events initially planned for the league’s relaunch.
LIV is hoping to secure a cash injection of $300 million from private equity firm BC Partners, but that will depend on LIV securing a “sufficient number of players” to have a “bona fide golf league” by an October 25 deadline.
“We are working hard around the clock both on the player front and on the structural front,” Fitzgerald said. The attorney also said that he anticipates a decision being made on whether LIV would remain operational next season by “the end of the month”.
Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, has defended the DP World Tour’s decision to block LIV players.
“I think the DP World Tour have been more than accommodating to LIV players,” he said in India.
“Yes, they’ve had to maybe do some things that have been conditional to their membership, like play a couple extra events this year, but I think this was always coming down the line.
“I think the DP World Tour have made a good decision, because the golf landscape, I feel like it’s been constantly changing for the last four, five years. It’s now got to the point where guys are going to have to make a decision and what’s important to them and what they really want to do.
“The DP World Tour are well within their rights to change the rules and regulations. This is the way to protect their business and to make the tour as strong as possible.”