The podcast pairs broadcasters Andrew Cotter and Iain Carter with DP World Tour pro Eddie Pepperell, whose criticism of LIV has led to several public disagreements with his fellow Englishman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This time, though, they had rather more room for debate than X\u2019s character count. Here are the highlights of the hour-long conversation\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why Westwood took the money\u00a0<\/p>\n
Westwood was among LIV\u2019s original recruits, joining a field that included Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter a stone\u2019s throw from St Albans back in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had turned 49 just a few weeks earlier. Whatever else the move represented, it offered a player approaching senior eligibility an extraordinary financial opportunity late in an already hugely successful career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA massive financial package was put in front of me \u2013 I would have been stupid,\u201d he said of turning it down. \u201c[But] that wasn\u2019t solely the reason that I signed up with LIV.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no problem saying part of it was financial. I\u2019ve made a fortune over the last four and a half years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The four-time European Tour Golfer of the Year says the money has left him in a position where he does not have to play again. Golf can now fit around his life, with considerably less pressure to keep earning from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Westwood was still competitive before joining LIV. He won his third European Tour season-long title at 47 in 2020, when victory in Abu Dhabi took him to 25 tour wins across four decades. In March 2021, he was runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at Bay Hill<\/a> and Justin Thomas at The Players<\/a>, losing both by a single shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood recalled how a subsequent break sent him sliding down the FedEx Cup standings. For a player living in Britain, keeping up meant either another lengthy stay in America or more transatlantic flights.\u00a0<\/p>\n LIV offered fewer events and familiar faces, as well as the money. That combination suited him.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI found it very lonely out on the European Tour and the PGA Tour,\u201d he said, adding that he has \u201cnot a lot in common with a lot of the guys\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n He described taking people he knew away with him because the weeks and evenings otherwise felt so long. In one recollection, a younger playing partner recognized a song Westwood was humming as a remix rather than the original.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI suddenly realized that they weren\u2019t born in the 90s,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Too much waste at LIV\u00a0<\/p>\n LIV\u2019s original operation is now being wound down as the organization attempts to establish a new business under different ownership.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund decided in April to end further equity funding, having bankrolled the league\u2019s rise to the tune of billions. LIV subsequently entered a Chapter 11 restructuring process in the United States on September 8 and announced an agreement with BC Partners Credit for a proposed recapitalization.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the proposal, players would become majority owners of the reorganized business. LIV have said they intend to begin the next phase in early 2027, subject to court and stakeholder approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n A host of players have already decided their futures lie elsewhere<\/a> \u2013 Jon Rahm the biggest of those. Westwood\u2019s Majesticks co-captain Ian Poulter is another, along with the likes of Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Tom McKibbin, and Louis Oosthuizen. Westwood, meanwhile, is still waiting to be persuaded by what comes next.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was the running of it more than anything,\u201d he told The Chipping Forecast<\/a> when asked why LIV had failed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the way the business was structured, there was too much waste, really. I think there is a business there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He pointed to Australia and South Africa as examples of an appetite for the product, arguing that the more relaxed atmosphere, concerts and activities for children had helped attract families and younger spectators.\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood believes those tournaments showed a market for a different kind of golf event, and sees scope for a revised operation to make it work.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think if LIV 2.0 gets off the ground, it will be a successful business,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think they\u2019ll still have great tournaments like that, which kind of takes me back to the very start of it. Surely with a 52-week year, there was room in the calendar for 14 events.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut how much was the discussion had [to make it work with the other tours]? You know, it felt like when LIV came on the scene, the door was pretty much slammed shut straight away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood said he got the feeling of \u201can us and them\u201d and doesn\u2019t believe there were any serious conversations between the various tours and the authorities in the game about how they could all operate cohesively.\u00a0<\/p>\n LIV have outlined plans for larger fields, a cut and additional qualification routes as part of their proposed next phase, but final plans remain to be confirmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood\u2019s argument for LIV also reflects the career he had before it existed.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Worksop golfer won in Sweden and Japan in 1996, and Malaysia, Spain and Australia the following year, beating Greg Norman in a playoff at the Australian Open. To date, no golfer has won in more countries than him.\u00a0<\/p>\n His record gives some substance to his frustration with a game he believes has become too focused on the United States. He was prepared to travel to compete around the world long before doing so so became part of LIV\u2019s sales pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the podcast, Westwood recalled a meeting with then European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan around the time of his 2021 Players Championship appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI remember Keith saying to me, \u2018It\u2019s my goal, it\u2019s my dream to have the European Tour feed into the PGA Tour.\u2019 At that moment, I just got a shiver down my spine, and thought that was just not for me.\u00a0I didn\u2019t feel like that was the way that the person, the CEO of the European Tour, should be talking. It was almost like he\u2019d given in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It is Westwood\u2019s account of a private conversation, but the broader disagreement is familiar. He sees a danger in Europe\u2019s best players being drawn away from the tour that developed them. The tour\u2019s leadership have presented closer ties with America as a way to strengthen its finances and improve opportunities for members.\u00a0<\/p>\n The alliance was expanded in June 2022 through a partnership running to 2035. It included increased PGA Tour investment and a route to PGA Tour cards for the leading 10 eligible players on the season-ending DP World Tour rankings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood acknowledged that Pelley had faced a difficult position, particularly after the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic, but he remains unconvinced about the longer-term consequences for European golf.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll be interesting to see what happens at the end of 2027 with future funding from the PGA Tour, what they will ask of the European Tour, and what assets they will want in return for dollars,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why \u2018growing the game\u2019 still matters to him\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood clearly resents the suggestion that players\u2019 work in that area began and ended with an explanation for taking Saudi money. He pointed to his own academies, international playing career, and involvement with junior golf, along with Poulter\u2019s charitable work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their Majesticks team\u2019s Little Sticks project takes golf into schools as part of PE lessons, including those where children have limited access to the sport. It has reached more than 50,000 children in 300 schools. Westwood revealed that he, Poulter, and Majesticks executive James Dunkley intend to help fund it despite the loss of the previous backing for \u201cas long as we can afford to, certainly next year\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been playing the game of golf for 33 years. And I have been growing the game for 30 odd years. I\u2019ve played all around the world, which I consider is growing the game. When I\u2019ve been world number one, I\u2019ve gone to other places around the world. So that insinuation that people weren\u2019t growing the game on LIV \u2013 a lot of us have been growing the game for years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood remains comfortable with his move to LIV, despite the criticism it has brought. He does, however, acknowledge that some of his public comments could have been better phrased.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any regrets about what I said. I probably could have phrased them slightly different,\u201d he told Cotter, Carter and Pepperell.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the word \u201cpariah\u201d came up, Westwood suggested the reaction to golf\u2019s split had been excessive.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a game. Everybody got way too emotional and wound up about it.\u00a0I am comfortable in my own skin. I made all the decisions that were right for Lee Westwood. And when you\u2019re making decisions in life, you got to make the right decisions for you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For Westwood, that also meant considering the people closest to him. He said there were only a small number of people whose opinions he would take seriously.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think people listen to too many people that don\u2019t mean anything to them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Nothing signed for next season\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite defending his original decision and the possibilities for LIV\u2019s future, Westwood made no commitment to being part of the next version.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen everybody\u2019s statement and I just don\u2019t get it. I won\u2019t be making a statement. It\u2019s nobody\u2019s business, but mine, where I go and play golf,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve got to put a press release out [for] where I go and work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI currently am unemployed. I haven\u2019t signed up to anything anywhere. There\u2019s nothing been presented to me that was agreeable for LIV 2.0. There\u2019s still a lot of things on that that would need fine-tuning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Rejoining the DP World Tour is one possibility, although Westwood said he had not yet had substantive discussions with the tour about membership. He resigned in May 2023, alongside Poulter, Garcia and Richard Bland, after an arbitration panel upheld the tour\u2019s right to sanction members for playing conflicting events without permission.\u00a0<\/p>\n He has already made a playing return, appearing by invitation at October\u2019s Dunhill Links Championship<\/a>. A place in an individual field and restored tour membership are separate matters, however. It is the latter he is now considering for next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n The DP World Tour\u2019s position has also hardened. Chief executive Guy Kinnings said last month that players must choose, with those signing for LIV in 2027 set to be refused membership<\/a>. Any decision by Westwood to rejoin would have to take that into account.\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood said rejoining would involve serving a 10-tournament suspension. On his current understanding of the timetable, he suggested Turkey in May could be a possible starting point if he chose that option.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senior events are also under consideration. A rather different appointment is already appealing: playing the Sunningdale Foursomes<\/a> for the first time with his son, Sam.\u00a0<\/p>\n Having previously been been attracted by LIV\u2019s shorter schedule, Westwood is now questioning the requirement to play on fixed weeks. He wants room for holidays and the people he misses when he is away. He would also quite like to go to the Cheltenham horse racing festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt the age of 53, do I want to be doing that? I\u2019m not sure I want to,\u201d he said of committing to a prescribed schedule. \u201cThere\u2019s a tournament the week against Cheltenham. I want to go to Cheltenham, right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He concluded: \u201cI\u2019m enjoying not having to make decisions at the moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Lee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/lee_westwood.jpg\")
Lee Westwood told The Chipping Forecast that his future is undecided. (Getty Images)A global player with concerns about Europe\u2019s future\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Lee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/lee-westwood-1997-australian-open.jpg\")
Lee Westwood beat Greg Norman, who would later be the first commissioner of LIV Golf, in a playoff to win the 1997 Australian Open. (Getty Images) \u2018I am comfortable in my own skin\u2019<\/p>\n