The likes of Sergio Garcia and other LIV golf stars have been criticised for trying to destroy the DP World Tour. The controversial breakaway circuit continues to shake up the golfing world as we know it as the lucrative series lures in some of the sport’s biggest names.
The PGA Tour has fired back and banned the defectors from all its events, while the DP World Tour has made only selective sanctions. However, the latter was challenged successfully by Ian Poulter to allow him to play at the Scottish Open, where many DP World Tour defectors teed up as a result.
The Brit also claimed things are rosy behind the scenes despite the current divide in the sport, but an anonymous player told the iPaper that the 46-year-old’s feelings are completely untrue. “Scotland was odd. I was in the physio truck warming up and Adrian Otaegui was in the with a shoulder injury,” he recalls.
“He got the doctors to scan it then asked them to build a rehab programme. That’s a service the DP World Tour offers the players. Now he has gone to LIV and come back and still wants all those things. I said to the physios that’s not right. They said they had no choice. We have to treat him the same. It just does not feel right.
"Justin Harding was walking along the range. Justin’s a good bloke. A couple of lads shouted, “will you just f**k off?'. It was banter but there was an underlying meaning as well. It’s hurting players, and not just them, the caddies, the staff. It feels like they are trying to take down the tour. It feels so wrong.”
One of the players impacted most by his defection to LIV was Henrik Stenson, who was stripped of the Team Europe captaincy at next year's Ryder Cup. The Swede claimed he was under the impression he would be able to remain in his role as skipper, despite opting to join Greg Norman’s organisation. The anonymous golfer found it amusing that Stenson thought he would be able to have his cake and eat it.
He went on to explain how it would feel if the likes of LIV star Garcia were to play on the PGA Tour again and thinks they have disrespected the organisation. “Say Sergio played, for example. It wouldn’t feel right. When I played, he was as good as any in terms of being there as a rookie," he added.
“The feeling you got from him, of why we are here, Seve, Faldo, all that stuff. You felt like you came together as a tour that week, even though he played 80 per cent of the time on the PGA Tour. Now it would be extremely divided. It’s so disappointing. As an amateur, I had a couple of pictures on my practice notebooks. One on the front and one at the back; one of Tiger, one of Sergio. The things he has said over the past few weeks are shocking.
“He walks in the locker room in Germany [BMW International Open in June] on Saturday night and starts ranting in front of Bob McIntyre and a few other guys, basically saying ‘you are all f**ked, I can’t wait to leave this tour’”. I don’t understand how you get to that point if you are a decent person. Why get bitter. Why? You started out on this platform. Why are you taking it down? This is a real issue.”
