Lee Westwood has hit back at a former footballer who compared the Englishman’s controversial move to LIV Golf to match fixing.
Westwood took part in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth as one of a number of LIV Golf players to do so. The lucrative and wholly controversial LIV Golf series is funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and it has divided golf, leaving the PGA and DP World Tours fractured after the new series poached some of the sports biggest names.
Players who have joined the LIV Golf series – bankrolled by a Saudi Arabian regime renowned for their human rights abuses – were handed immediate and indefinite bans from the PGA Tour. The DP World Tour have implied they will fine the rebels and suspend them from future events but they haven’t issued a ban just yet.
Westwood has endured a difficult run of form, suffering four cuts in eight events on the PGA Tour before joining the 48-man LIV series, finishing 29th and 16th in his first events. The 49-year-old tied for 34th at the Open Championship won by Cameron Smith before finishing ninth and fourth in further LIV events, with the most recent coming last week in Boston.
After his performance at the PGA Championship, Westwood hit out at Gordon Armstrong after the former footballer sensationally compared his decision to join LIV Golf to match fixing. He criticised Armstrong – who spent most of his career with Sunderland – for his comments.
“You’ve likened playing for another league to someone who commits a criminal offence of throwing football matches?” Westwood said. “What an amazing grasp of reality! I’m sure your employers will be thrilled to hear this logic.”
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Action Images via Reuters)
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Armstrong, reportedly a big golf fan, originally replied: “You took loads more money when you really don’t need it, which I never said was criminal, like Jon Rahm said you guys could never spend all your money, what I said was it has completely spoilt your reputation as a legend of European Golf” – but he deleted the original tweet.
Armstrong added: “Apologies the bit about other footballers went too far.” Westwood accepted his apology.
Westwood will play in LIV’s final four events and revealed he is unsure when he would next play on the DP World Tour. Once the LIV Golf tour wraps up for the 2022 season at the end of next month, Westwood admitted he may not play again until 2023.
“You know, I honestly don’t know,” Westwood continued. “It gives me options, doesn’t it? I might play a couple in there.
“I mean, I’m the kind of player that needs to tick over a little bit, but just recently, I’ve been taking four weeks off and then finishing fourth last week and played well this week. I can just play it by ear.”
