SerpApi.Org
Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood spent two years resisting their fines on principle. Now, with LIV Golf’s finances wobbling, both men have quietly paid up, and the timing says everything about where the league actually stands.
Westwood explained the reversal at JCB Golf & Country Club, ahead of LIV’s UK event.
“What it does is gives us options having them paid,” he said. “When the current financial backers of the tour are talking about pulling out, and we’re being indemnified, it just makes sense to get them paid straight away before they do pull out.”
This threat is not just a theoretical one, since the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has already stated that they will cease financing LIV once the season ends, thus removing the safety net for those fines and prompting both of them to settle then.
The move represents an obvious change of stance by Westwood, who two years ago had said, “I’m not paying them because I disagree with the way they’ve been handed out.”
Poulter made a similar defence, arguing that the payment was a matter of timing rather than submission.
“The fines were always going to be paid at some point, and that was down to myself and Lee to choose when that time was right,” Poulter said.
This statement underscores how far golf has come since 2022, with both Rahm and Hatton able to evade punishment in a later settlement, while Poulter and Westwood received punishment under rules now relaxed for others.
It is still an issue for both players and relates to yet another conflict which remains unsettled.
The Ryder Cup Ban Still Stands
Resolving the issue with the DP World Tour helps with one issue, but that does not negate all of the issues associated with their time in LIV.
There is an existing rule that precedes LIV that prevents any player who had resigned their membership from being a captain or a vice-captain of the Ryder Cup at any time, regardless of the fines being settled. Westwood and Poulter had both resigned their memberships in 2023.
The problems Poulter faces go even further than that. The player was moved down from category 5A to 11A because he decided not to renew his membership last November, thus losing some of the exemptions needed for entry into tournaments.
“My exemptions are being burned year in, year out right now which is unfortunate,” he said.
He is also still not sure of how frequently he will participate in the DP World Tour in the coming time.
“I’m still hopeful that things work out in the right way for me to play a number of different tournaments at different times,” said Poulter, adding uncertainty to his schedule in 2027 and his relationship with the tour.
Debts have been cleared, but the ban from the Ryder Cup for Poulter and Westwood, fewer exemptions, and the uncertain future of LIV make their story far from complete.
Would you like to see Poulter or Westwood return to a Ryder Cup one day?
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