Keith Pelley passionately defends DP World Tour after Lee Westwood 'feeder' tour claims, also denies LIV deal
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Updated 07/09/2022 at 15:01 GMT
On the eve of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth - which sees 17 LIV Golf players compete - Keith Pelley launched a passionate defence of the DP World Tour after Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia both took swipes at the organisation, which was formerly known as the European Tour. Pelley also batted away claims he turned down a deal to work with Golf Saudi.
‘We can stand here and argue all day’ - Westwood hits out at media over LIV Golf
DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley has launched a passionate defence of his organisation after Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia downplayed its importance.
Both players joined the LIV Golf series earlier this year and have criticised Pelley’s response to the Saudi-backed breakaway tour.
While Westwood claimed the European tour has become a “feeder” to other competitions, Garcia thinks it will become the fifth best tour in the world.
Both will be taking to the course at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, along with 15 other LIV players. This in itself has caused much debate, with some competitors, including Jon Rahm, questioning whether they should be allowed to compete.
Defending champion Billy Horschel made his stance clear, saying “I don’t think those guys really should be here”, with other DP World Tour members missing out on the chance to play the tournament.
Reacting to Garcia’s comments in a news conference ahead at Wentworth, Pelley said, “"It's unbelievable. Let's look at the facts. If the metric determining the top tours in the world is just money, then the number one tour is the PGA Tour, always has been. You could argue that the LIV Invitational Series is number two.”
"But The Asian Tour, $22.5m; Korn Ferry, $20m; Japan, $28m; Australia, $5.8m; Sunshine Tour, $7.4m. Totalling all their prize funds together comes to just half of our tour. So even if the only metric is money, how possibly could we ever become number five”, he said.
As part of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour coalition against LIV Golf, the leading ten players in the rankings at the end of the European tour season will earn PGA Tour cards for the following campaign.
Hitting back at Westwood’s “feeder” comments, Pelley said, "I'll ask you. Is this week a tournament that is on a feeder tour? A tournament that has sold-out crowds, television coverage around the world in 150 countries, five of the Top 15 players in the world? A tournament with 150 accredited media?”
"Our first co-sanctioned event with the PGA Tour in Scotland, where 14 of the top 15 players (in the world) played, would that appear on a feeder tour? I could go on and on”, he said.
Can we please just stop the feeder tour nonsense once and for all.
During his impassioned meeting with the press, Pelley also addressed rumours that, during a trip to Malta last year, he turned down a $1bn deal with the Saudi Arabian project.
"I know that many people still quote the Malta meeting and the supposed $1bn offer that was made to us by Golf Saudi," he said.
"There's only one word to describe that claim, and that is fictitious. I genuinely do not know how many times I can make this point.”
"And you can ask any member of our board of directors, and they will unanimously confirm that it was not an offer, it was not a deal. It was merely a marketing presentation put together on behalf of Golf Saudi.”
Pelley reiterated a lack of interest in the approach, saying, "When it was reviewed at our board of directors on 7 September, 2021, it was dismissed. I'd love to share the actual document with you but we have no intention of sharing a document that isn't ours to share.”
"In many ways, I wish I could because it would put to bed all this speculation once and for all."
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