Lee Westwood and DP World Tour chief Keith Pelley are set to come face-to-face in golf's crucial legal battle this week.
Westwood is one of 13 LIV Golf rebels making a case at a five-day arbitration hearing in London that will decide their future on the DP World Tour. LIV players are battling to stay on the European circuit in a legal dispute that concerns the Tour's conflicting event release regulations.
A three-strong panel will determine whether the Tour will be able to suspend players, including Westwood and fellow Ryder Cup veteran Ian Poulter, from future events. And the outcome of the behind-closed-doors hearing at Sports Resolutions will likely decide whether Westwood and his fellow LIV rebels will be banned from competing in the Ryder Cup.
LIV players had been fined £100,000 and suspended from the Scottish Open for ignoring their 'conflicting event' release request being refused by the Tour and playing in the Saudi-backed breakaway's inaugural event at the Centurion Club last June.
Westwood is one of 13 appellants with LIV players arguing that the DP World Tour has granted requests to play on other tours without punishment in the past. The Tour, meanwhile, will put their argument forward that they were within their right to impose the sanctions.
And Westwood, a veteran of the formerly known European Tour, has now revealed he will be giving evidence in person at the hearing this week.
“We all gave written statements and thought that might be enough, but I have been asked to give evidence at the hearing and, as I’m in London on Tuesday, will go along then," he told The Telegraph. "They said I could do it over an internet link, but I’ve got nothing to feel uncomfortable about so am happy to go in person.”
Westwood's decision to attend the hearing opens up the possibility of an awkward encounter with the Tour's CEO Pelley. The 49-year-old was involved in a verbal spat with Pelley in Dubai last month as he accused his organisation of deliberately "stoking up tension"' with anti-LIV "propaganda".
Pelley then condemned his comments relating to the supposed weakness of his Tour as 'unfair', claiming the former world number one's words 'upset his staff'.
And Westwood - who expects to learn the verdict of the hearing by the end of the month - admits the circumstances surrounding his latest meeting with Pelley are bizarre, but ultimately necessary for the dispute to be settled. .
"It might feel a bit odd, yes. But this probably needs to happen to get some resolution," he added. "There's been plenty said and it will be good for impartial judges to decide and then we can all get on with it.
"I don't know about appeals and what have you, and I may be wrong, but as far as I'm concerned this will draw a line and that will be it. We don't know when we will get a decision – it won't be immediate – but I've been advised it will probably be two to three weeks."
