Swede Henrik Stenson is the latest LIV golfer to resign his DP World Tour membership just hours after the tour confirmed further fines and sanctions for players who competed at conflicting LIV Golf and Asian Tour events without releases.
“It is sad that it has come to this,” Stenson told Golf Digest. “But it is what it is and it certainly wasn’t unexpected. They left me with no other choice so I have resigned. That’s it. I don’t really feel like it will do any good to dig into this too deeply. I’m appreciative of what the tour has done for me over the years. But they have chosen how they want to view the future. And we have obviously done the same. Unfortunately, they don’t go together at this point.”
An independent panel appointed by Sport Resolutions deemed the DP World Tour had acted ‘entirely reasonably in refusing releases’ for the events in question and that the Conflicting Tournament Regulation was ‘reasonable and proportionate to the Tour’s continued operation as a professional golf tour’.
The panel also held that the DP World Tour had ‘a legitimate and justifiable interest’ in enforcing its regulations with the imposition of sanctions such as fines and suspensions.
In total, 26 players were informed individually on Thursday of the sanctions applicable to them based on the specific conflicting tournaments they each played in, as a DP World Tour member, without being granted a release. The sanctions imposed were determined on a case-by-case basis; acknowledging differences between the events in terms of the impact on the DP World Tour’s broadcast partners, sponsors and stakeholders.
Where fines were issued to players they ranged from £12,500 to £100,000 for each individual breach of the Conflicting Tournament Regulation, with Stenson confirming;
“I haven’t added up the numbers on how much I was fined,” he said. “It was anywhere between £50,000 and £75,000 per LIV event, which added up to a substantial amount. I don’t feel like me spilling the beans and airing my views on all this is actually going to be what I should do. Doing that is only going to make the situation even more infected than it already is.
“As was the case when I resigned the Ryder Cup captaincy, I have my views on a lot of things that have gone on. But out of respect for a lot of people and what they do — and even those I don’t totally respect –there is no point in me digging any deeper. There is less than half a year until the Ryder Cup so it is best I don’t say much other than to say I’ve resigned.”
Where appropriate, some sanctions also include tournament suspensions. The total cumulative suspension imposed on any single player for breaches in the period June 22, 2022, to April 2, 2023 is a maximum of eight DP World Tour tournaments, comprising a combination of one or two week suspensions.
The suspensions imposed relate to regular season DP World Tour events (i.e. excluding Major Championships) and will run consecutively, effective from the Porsche European Open from June 1-4, 2023.
Players who have resigned their membership will not be eligible for reinstatement unless and until they pay their fines and their suspensions will apply from then onwards.
Stenson, who incredibly sacrificed the opportunity to Captain Europe at this year’s Ryder Cup when moving to LIV and duly replaced by Luke Donald, was at least content to go out of the DP World Tour on a high:
“I look back on my 23 years on tour and at least I know that I closed with a 64 on Sunday in Dubai (T-8 in January’s Dubai Desert Classic). That’s not the worst way to go out.”
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