In a press release shared with CNN, DP World Tour chief govt Keith Pelley stated the letter, which was revealed in an unique report in The Telegraph, contained “so many inaccuracies” that it could not stay unchallenged.
Final week, the Tour fined the 16 gamers £100,000 ($121,230) every and banned them from a number of occasions, together with the Scottish Open, for collaborating within the inaugural occasion of the LIV Golf collection with out receiving correct releases to take action.
In keeping with the DP World Tour Members’ Normal Rules Handbook, gamers should obtain a launch to take part in an occasion that’s scheduled concurrently a DP World Tour occasion.
The Tour additionally warned that future participation within the Saudi-backed breakaway collection, with out the required launch, may incur additional sanctions.
On Thursday, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, together with 14 different golfers, requested the DP World Tour in an open letter to rescind the fines and permit them to take part in subsequent week’s Scottish Open by 5 p.m. on Friday, July 8 in response to the Telegraph.
“As a substitute of spending our time, vitality, monetary sources and deal with appeals, injunctions and lawsuits, we’d implore you … to rethink your current penalties and sanctions,” the letter learn, in response to the Telegraph.
“If not, you’ll go away us with no selection however to make use of the varied different means and strategies at our disposal to rectify these wrongs.”
The DP World Tour’s Pelley says the gamers knew in regards to the potential penalties earlier than they participated within the occasion in London.
“Certainly, as one participant named within the letter stated in a media interview earlier this yr; ‘In the event that they ban me, they ban me.’ It’s not credible that some at the moment are shocked with the actions now we have taken.”
Final month, the PGA Tour introduced that each one golfers who performed within the controversial collection can be banned indefinitely from collaborating in Tour-sanctioned tournaments
LIV Golf is organized by LIV Golf Investments and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) — a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the person who a US intelligence report named as liable for approving the operation that led to the 2018 homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The crown prince has denied that he ordered Khashoggi’s homicide however has stated that he bears accountability. “This was a heinous crime,” he stated in an interview with CBS in 2019. “However I take full accountability as a frontrunner in Saudi Arabia, particularly because it was dedicated by people working for the Saudi authorities.”
The second LIV Golf collection occasion teed off on Thursday at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Membership close to Portland, Oregon.
