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- The PGA Tour has announced penalties for both current, and future, LIV Golfers.
- LIV Golf didn’t take long to send a response to the PGA Tour’s statement.
- Be sure to check out more golf stories at BroBible here.
The PGA Tour waited until LIV Golf’s inaugural event got underway on Thursday before announcing its punishments for both current, and future, players who tee it up on the Saudi-backed circuit.
As expected, the PGA Tour has suspended LIV golfers.
The Tour sent a memo to all members of the PGA Tour sending a very clear message that those who play in a LIV Golf event are no longer welcome.
“We have followed the Tournament Regulations from start to finish in responding to those players who have decided to turn their backs on the PGA Tour by willfully violating a regulation,” the memo reads.
“Simultaneous to you receiving this memo, the players are being notified that they are suspended or otherwise no longer eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournament play, including the Presidents Cup.
“This also applies to all tours sanctioned by the PGA Tour: the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Champions, PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamérica.”
Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Matt Jones – players who didn’t resign their Tour membership before the first LIV event – have been suspended. Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel – players that did resign their Tour membership – were also suspended.
The players that resigned their membership will be removed from the FedEx Cup Points List.
LIV golfers won’t be allowed to play in PGA Tour events as a non-member, either, so there will be no sponsor exemption starts for LIV players.
LIV Golf Responds To PGA Tour Suspending Players
Just minutes after the PGA Tour sent out its memo, LIV Golf sent out one of its own in response.
“Today’s announcement by the PGA Tour is vindictive and it deepens the divide between the Tour and its members. It’s troubling that the Tour, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing. This certainly is not the last word on this topic.
“The era of free agency is beginning as we are proud to have a full field of players joining us in London, and beyond.”
LIV Golf’s first event is currently underway in London. The second event on its schedule is in two weeks in Portland, Oregon following next week’s U.S. Open.