In an audience where everyone raises their voices, exchanging mutual accusations and (slightly) veiled threats, someone chooses an approach that can lead to dialogue. That someone is Lee Westwood. The British player, who will turn 50 next April, boasts 44 victories (including 25 on the European Tour and 2 on the PGA Tour, but from Tours he attended another 5), between 2010 and 2011 it was for two times number one of the OWGR and shares with Sir Nick Faldo the Ryder Cup participation record as a player, with eleven notches on his belt.
Lee Westwood, statements
He has very clear ideas about the importance of the Majors: “I think everyone knows that the Majors are the most important four weeks of the year, and for me the Open Championship is the most important of all.”
At the beginning of last May, Westwood was among those who asked the PGA Tour for authorization to participate in the first event of the LIV Golf which was to be held shortly thereafter at the Centurion Club. The authorization never arrived, but by now the choice was made.
Today he is the captain of the Majesticks GC, one of the LIV Golf Teams, which includes Ian James Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sam Horsfield. He is therefore part of the “rebels”, the players who signed the contract with the league led by Greg Norman.
But Westwood has a very specific idea about this rift that is becoming clearer every day. “Many people see LIV Golf as a threat” “Many other tours have existed for a long time, but they have never represented a danger” “Saudi Arabia is present in Formula 1, boxing and is the owner of Newcastle United” “But for some reason, the Saudis’ entry into the world of golf was targeted” “I think this is a little unfair” “From the beginning, LIV Golf has declared that it wants to be part of the Golf ecosystem, proceeding together with the other Tours, without interfering with the most important events” “But the other Tours didn’t agree, and then they didn’t take them seriously.
But now things have changed ”. As we know, the current situation is fraught with tension. The suspensions and bans imposed by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour on players who have joined LIV Golf, the removal of Henrik Stenson from the position of Captain of Team Europe make peace look like a chimera.
But Westwood is adamant that LIV Golf will continue on its way. “Several people don’t want to sit around a table with us” “It is the other Tours and other associations that cause resistance and irritation” “I don’t want the Majors and the Ryder Cup to suffer from all this” “I was surprised at how quickly they removed Henrik from office.
I’m sad because this will weaken Team Europe, when instead each of us wants it to be as strong as possible ” “Probably Team USA will also be weakened, but many things have yet to be decided and many questions have yet to be answered” Is there time to settle the differences in view of the appointment in Rome in September 2023? “All the players want this to happen quickly, but I don’t think it will be like that” “The PGA Tour has done everything in its power for the past 30 years, trampling other Tours for decades.”
