In a memo to players Wednesday, DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley reiterated that the joint commitment between his circuit, the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund doesn’t change the short-term prospects of the LIV players who resigned their European tour membership last month.
Nine players resigned their membership May 3 because of sanctions they faced after an arbitration panel sided with the European tour: Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Richard Bland, Martin Kaymer, Dean Burmester and Paul Casey. Pelley said in the letter that any fines and suspensions imposed remain in effect.
In the news release Tuesday announcing the merging of the three organizations in a new, for-profit entity, the tours said that they’d work to establish a “fair and objective” process for any players who wanted to reapply for membership following the competition of the current season.
If those players wanted to rejoin the European tour this season, however, they needed to notify officials by May 1 – barring an “exceptional circumstance,” per the tour regulations. With the deadline passed, Pelley said “it would be difficult and highly unlikely” for that reinstatement scenario to arise.
Pelley used the same verbiage – “difficult and highly unlikely” – to describe the likelihood that any of those players could be reinstated and join the European Ryder Cup team later this year.
There are only two conditions for qualification – that a player is both European and a member of the tour. That, then, would require a LIV player being readmitted, and Pelley stressed that was a “difficult and highly unlikely” scenario.
That’s why Rory McIlroy, speaking Wednesday at the RBC Canadian Open, described it as a “moot point.”
“All those guys have resigned their membership,” he said. “If you’re not a member of the European tour, you can’t play the Ryder Cup. So to me, it’s a moot point.”
Full memo below:
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