The European tour was within its rights to sanction members who competed on the Saudi-funded LIV Golf without permission, an independent tribunal ruled Thursday.
An appeal panel at Sports Resolutions found that a number of players, including Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, committed “serious breaches” of the European tour’s code of behavior by playing in LIV Golf events last year despite requests to be released having been refused.
The ruling allows the European tour to impose fines of 100,000 pounds ($125,000) on players who competed in the rival league without a conflicting events release.
Keith Pelley, the European tour chief executive, welcomed the tribunal’s decision.
“We are delighted that the panel recognized we have a responsibility to our full membership to do this and also determined that the process we followed was fair and proportionate,” Pelley said. “In deciding the level of these sanctions last June, we were simply administering the regulations which were created by our members and which each of them signed up to.”
It was the first court decision since LIV Golf began in June, and will likely mean Westwood, Poulter, Sergio Garcia and others will resign their European tour membership. The ruling is likely to provide clear definition for Europe in the Ryder Cup in terms of who could qualify or even play against the United States in Rome in September.
The tour imposed the fine on members competing at the inaugural LIV event at the Centurion Club last June and suspended them from the Scottish Open. Poulter, Adrian Otaegui of Spain and Justin Harding of South Africa appealed, allowing LIV players to compete in European tour events.
Sports Resolution heard the case in February over five days of private hearings, with Westwood, Garcia, Patrick Reed, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, Sam Horsfield, Richard Bland, Shaun Norris, Laurie Canter, Wade Ormsby, Bernd Weisburger, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace also having issued appeals.
Garcia, Schwartzel, Grace and Otaegui withdrew their appeals just before the hearings took place.
Pelley, the panel found, “acted entirely reasonably in refusing releases.”
The tour said the original fine handed to players competing at Centurion must now be paid within 30 days.
“It is, of course, regrettable that resources, both financial and staffing, which could have been otherwise deployed across our organization, have been impacted by this lengthy arbitration process," Pelley said.
