We still do not know the official position of the DP World Tour regarding the players who have decided to join the dissident circuit of Greg Norman. If with regard to the Ryder Cup, and a fortiori the captaincy from which Stenson was dismissed, the general staff of the European Tour Group was firm, the vagueness remains concerning the regular tournaments of the season.
Bmw Championship, situation
A “bastard” situation which we remember had created quite a stir during the Genesis Scottish Open when three players (Ian Poulter, Adrian Otaegui and Justin Harding) had won their case before a legal body while the DP World Tour wanted to exclude them from the third Rolex Series of the season, co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour.
This time, it is in Wentworth, at the headquarters of the DP World Tour, that the debates are likely to be lively in the second week of September. Indeed, on the “entry list” of the prestigious London tournament, in addition to the names of Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Billy Horschel the title holder, Shane Lowry, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose or Adam Scott, are those of several LIV players.
American players not really in the odor of sanctity like Kevin Na, Talor Gooch, Jason Kokrak, or the life member of the DP World Tour, Patrick Reed! Among the registered dissidents are also Ryder Cup players Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, Bernd Wiesberger or Sergio Garcia.
We can also mention Abraham Ancer, Sam Horsfield, Adrian Otaegui and Richard Bland, and the winner of the Portland tournament, Branden Grace, who has already accumulated more than 6 million dollars in winnings in 3 exhibition tournaments on the LIV.
All these players who, we remember, had motivated their decision to join the circuit financed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia by their desire to play less, in order to be more often alongside their family, have therefore decided to take advantage of the loophole in the DP World Tour regulations to line up at the start of the fourth Rolex Series of the season.
Their goal ? Trying to score world points from which they have been weaned since their exclusion from the PGA Tour but which has the consequence of depriving many players of possible participation in a very lucrative tournament…
Among the victims of the laxity of the DP World Tour vis-à-vis the “rebels” are some French people. In the forefront of which are the two promoted from the Challenge Tour last year, Julien Brun and Frédéric Lacroix.
The players of the St Laurent Golf Team are currently 6th and 7th reserves. Worse. No player among the “graduates” of the Challenge Tour 2021 is in a position to take part in this historic tournament of the European Tour and there is no doubt that the controversy is likely to swell as the date of the first round (September 8) will approach.
Bitter, the failed hope in particular that Rory McIlroy, very active when it comes to defending the interests of the PGA Tour, will not hesitate to speak out to speak out against a situation that they consider unacceptable.
