Sport Resolutions has announced it has upheld the DP World Tour's conflicting tournament release regulation and its ability to sanction members who breached it; "The appeals were dismissed and each of the appellants were ordered to pay the fine of £100,000 originally imposed"
Thursday 6 April 2023 16:55, UK
The DP World Tour has won its legal battle to impose fines and sanctions on LIV players who played in conflicting events without permission.
Players requested "conflicting event" releases from the DP World Tour to play in the inaugural LIV Golf event at Centurion Club last June, although those requests were denied, with the players fined £100,000 and initially suspended from the Genesis Scottish Open.
Ian Poulter, Adrian Otaegui and Justin Harding appealed against the decision and the punishments were stayed pending an appeal, a ruling which has allowed LIV players to continue competing on the DP World Tour since without penalty.
The number of appellants grew to 16, although Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Otaegui withdrew from the case ahead of a five-day arbitration hearing by Sport Resolutions UK in February.
A three-strong panel heard arguments from the DP World Tour and lawyers representing the LIV Golf players, with Sport Resolutions confirming on Thursday - the morning The Masters begins - that it upheld the DP World Tour's conflicting tournament release regulation and dismissed the appeals.
The Sport Resolutions panel found Keith Pelley, the DP World Tour's chief executive, "acted entirely reasonably in refusing releases" and the regulations "cannot be to be said to go beyond what is necessary and proportionate to the [DP World Tour's] continued operation as a professional golf tour".
The panel confirmed the regulations are lawful and enforceable, as members "committed serious breaches of the code of behaviour of the DP World Tour regulations by playing in [LIV Golf events] despite their release requests having been refused", with the players losing their appeal now having 30 days to pay their fines.
Sport Resolutions said in a statement: "The appeal panel ultimately found that the appellants committed serious breaches of the code of behaviour of the DPWT regulations by playing in the LIV Golf Invitational (London) and LIV Portland events respectively, despite their release requests having been refused. The appeals were dismissed and each of the appellants were ordered to pay the fine of £100,000 originally imposed."
Reacting to the verdict, Matthew Schwartz of Gibson Dunn, counsel to LIV Golf, told Sky Sports: "We disagree with the procedural opinion from the DP World Tour's arbitral body, which has failed to address in reasonable substance why competitive forces must be upheld.
"By punishing players for playing golf, the DPWT is seeking to unreasonably control players and it is the sport and fans that suffer. There are no winners.
"This is a sacred week in the global sports calendar and the on-course competition is what matters. LIV remains focused on its decades-long vision to enhance the game and is looking forward to its upcoming tournament in Australia in front of 70,000 fans."
Sky Sports News' golf correspondent Jamie Weir described the verdict as a "hammer blow" for LIV golfers.
"It is extraordinary timing; we are almost an hour away from the ceremonial tee shot of the 87th Masters. They will be rejoicing at DP World Tour offices, because their decision has been vindicated," said Weir.
"It is a hammer blow for LIV Golf, their players are now essentially left with no route at all to significant world ranking points and no pathways into the majors. They were hoping perhaps they would continue playing with the DP World Tour, eke out some world ranking points to try and stay in the top-50 rankings and stay in the major tournaments.
"The only established tour they can play on is the Asian Tour, where ranking points are negligible. It's a sad day as well because stalwarts such as Westwood, Poulter, Garcia, Kaymer, McDowell, will no longer be seen on the European Tour. That now means their Ryder Cup involvement is at an end as well.
"I am sure Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley isn't pleased this news has dropped [on Thursday]. The DP World Tour isn't pleased. From that point of view, it's not ideal. Sport Resolutions are an independent body and were given the task of reaching a verdict as soon as possible.
"For some of those players it will be a distraction, but for some they might have a spring in their step. Some players may have been gambling on the DP World Tour losing this case. We can definitely say they will not have any involvement in Rome and future Ryder Cups. That is a blow from a captaining point of view, you have a pipeline of future captains, and where is that captaincy going to go now?"
Keith Pelley, DP World Tour chief executive, said: "We welcome today's decision by Sport Resolutions which upholds our regulations and our ability to administer them.
"We are delighted that the panel recognised we have a responsibility to our full membership to do this and also determined that the process we followed was fair and proportionate.
"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 is, of course, regrettable that resources, both financial and staffing, which could have been otherwise deployed across our organisation, have been impacted by this lengthy arbitration process.
"However, with the clarity provided by today's decision, we look forward to continuing to focus on our 2023 global schedule, whilst also continuing to plan for 2024 with the valued support of our many partners and stakeholders.
"We will now carefully consider the details of today's decision with our board, our tournament committee and our legal advisors and take the appropriate action in due course."
Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK & Ireland
