initially stressing that the punishments were unfair<\/a>.<\/p>\nThis week, both the Majesticks GC co-captains are competing in LIV\u2019s final event of the 2026 season in Indianapolis, as the breakaway league attempts to navigate a remimagined future without the backing of Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund.<\/p>\n
In October, meanwhile, Westwood and Poulter will both tee it up at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in what will likely be their first start on the DP World Tour at least three years. The former European Ryder Cup stalwarts have each received invites to the $5million showpiece, played across St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie.<\/p>\n
Several other LIV players, including three-time champion Tyrrell Hatton, will also be teeing it up in the Home of Golf. By that stage, LIV\u2019s fate will have become clearer, as the league works to secure the futures of its stars players in preparation <\/p>\n
At LIV Golf last month, TG asked Westwood and Poulter why they felt now was the right time to recover their DP World Tour cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it does is gives us options having them paid,\u201d Westwood said. \u201cWhen the current financial backers of the tour are talking about pulling out and we\u2019re being indemnified, it just makes sense to get them paid straight away before they do pull out. That\u2019s really why we had them paid when we did.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I still don\u2019t agree with the fines because we are being completely treated differently to the people playing on this tour. I think the fines were excessive when you consider what other people did and how much they got fined historically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poulter added: \u201cThe fines were always going to be paid at some point, and that was down to myself and Lee to choose when that time was right,\u201d Poulter said. \u201cThe European Tour and LIV Golf and the acceptance of it all, it\u2019s all in a very different position today than what it was four years ago when we were being fined the way we were.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the English duo can now invites to the DP World Tour after clearing their fines, they will not be able to become full-time members again until next season. <\/p>\n
Poulter, who like Westwood has turned to senior golf after reaching 50, also said he was frustrated that the legends category he will on the DP World Tour has been downgraded. Players in the top 40 on the circuit\u2019s career money list who had fulfilled four or more other criteria have been moved to a category that guarantees fewer exemptions into the biggest tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy exemptions are being burned year in, year out right now which is unfortunate because they took the opportunity in November, if you didn\u2019t rejoin they would reduce your exemption year in, year out,\u201d Poulter said. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame they did that. It\u2019s a shame they devalued the legends category from 5A to 11A, which isn\u2019t helpful to get in some certain tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf some of the tournaments directors would really like me to go and play in their tournament and it doesn\u2019t compete, they know my number. I\u2019ve played those tournaments before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they want to give me a call, then let\u2019s have a chat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Westwood, meanwhile, will also be making his Legends Tour debut at the Staysure English Legends from August 25-28, a week after LIV\u2019s finale in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Ryder Cup legends will be making a return to their old domains \u2013 which at one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-743856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}