'They tried to sue us and bad mouthed us' - Scot says returning LIV players need to be humble
Stephen Gallacher, Paul Lawrie and David Drysdale all have say on players heading back to DP World Tour
Stephen Gallacher believes that LIV Golf players with a category for the DP World Tour are entitled to return to the circuit following the collapse of the breakaway tour after losing its mind-blowing Saudi Arabian funding.
But that doesn’t mean that everything should be swept under the carpet and, as a member of the DP World Tour’s tournament committee when LIV Golf was launched in 2021, Gallacher is well aware of everything that was either said or done.
“I didn’t wish them any harm at all when they left,” said Gallacher of no less than six of his team-mates from the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles - Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell - joining LIV Golf.
“But I didn’t like it when they were trying to sue us and bad mouthing us when I was on the tournament committee. That was a bit offside in my book. It was our livelihood they were trying to take away! They became competitors as they were stealing our sponsors and they were stealing our golf courses. It was terrible. It wasn’t a nice environment at that time.”
With LIV Golf having announced last week that it is now in the process of winding down its operations after BC Partners Credit pulled the plug on a proposed $300 million investment in a 2.0 model, a number of players are eyeing returns to the DP World Tour.
Jon Rahm, who’d already announced he was ending his stint with the rebel circuit, won the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship on Sunday through still being exempt for the DP World Tour, as are the likes of Garcia, Westwood and Poulter.
Two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau has until next week to decide he wants to take up DP World Tour membership for the 2027 season, with even the biggest names unlikely to be handed the same terms offered to five-time major champion Brooks Koepka when he returned to the PGA Tour this season.
“I don’t think it can return to normal,” insisted Gallacher, speaking to The Scotsman during the Champions UK plc European Senior Masters at Grand Hyatt La Manga Resort in Spain.
“I think one thing the LIV guys need to remember is that they made their decision and made a lot of money. That was their choice and now everything has changed. I think they need to be a bit humble and say ‘listen, we went for a particular reason and that was the money they were offered’.
“If guys are still exempt for the DP World Tour - Sergio, Westwood and DeChambeau - then they can come back and play. If not, they go to Tour School or go to the HotelPlanner Tour. If you’ve not got any status, you go and earn it like everyone else. Like Marc Warren, for example, through the HotelPlanner Tour and David Law through finishing in the top 100 in the Race to Dubai.”
What does Paul Lawrie, a major winner and two-time Ryder Cup player, think of how the landscape is going to look in a non-LIV Golf era? “Honestly, I don’t know,” he said, smiling. “I get asked about LIV a lot in my Q&As and I always answer by saying that if I was in a position they were in, then I’d have done the same thing and played (for LIV), I have no problem at all with that.
“Now it’s gone wrong and I also have no problems with the ones with exemptions coming back. But, if you’ve not got an exemption, it’s not great if that is suddenly going to be handed out. You can’t be doing that, but it’s not up to me, thankfully, to decide on what the rules are and the rules aren’t.
“Guys like Serio, Westwood, Poulter, they’ve all still got exemptions, I assume, and if that’s the case, then no bother. But this Charles Howell III situation. He’s only played in three events on our tour outside the majors.
“I think the problem they’ve got now a little bit, especially on our tour (the DP World Tour), is seeing how much money they lost this year trying to keep up with LIV to keep players happy by allowing them to play for more, that money is just not there. So, whether this levels it out again, we will see. As Paul McGinley said recently, it’s been a false economy and it was unsustainable. I mean, $6 billion over five years. Oh my god and it’s been for nothing.”
David Drysdale was still playing on the DP World Tour when LIV started up before he then teed up on the Asian Tour. “I was very involved in it playing on the Asian Tour because P54 ran those International Series events,” said the Cockburnspath man, also speaking in Spain during last week’s Staysure Legends Tour event.
“What’s my take on it? I don’t blame any of the guys in their mid-to-late 40s for going and taking the money because you would have been off your head not to. Now they are all coming back and, if you’ve got an exemption, then fair enough. If not, then you should go to the Q School. I certainly don’t think they should get invitations.
“I’d be pretty disappointed if I was still out there grinding away to try and finish in the top 100 and, all of a sudden, 10 or 12 guys rock up and play in an event. I don’t have any issues with the Rahms, Hattons, Westwoods. All these guys supported the tour incredibly well over the years, but Charles Howell, for example, isn’t in the same boat. Tour School is on at the moment. If you want to play on the DP World Tour, then get along to that next year or whenever.”
In an exclusive interview with The Scotsman, DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings insisted that there is no plan to create a special exemption category and any invites will be targeted “around some smaller national opens in the period from February through August, that would benefit from stronger fields”.
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