DP World Tour Shouldn't 'Roll Over' To PGA Tour - Westwood

Featuring in the first three LIV Golf events, Lee Westwood has picked up around $1.5 million for his efforts in the series. However, the talk around LIV Golf has been controversial, with many questioning the way the series is backed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, the Public Investment Fund, with accusations that the money is being used to sportswash the regime’s human rights record.

Following the rise of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour has reacted, with its Commissioner, Jay Monahan, announcing changes to combat the ongoing and future threat posed by the series. One of the changes included the Tour's "top players" committing to compete in at least 20 PGA Tour events per year, something which Jon Rahm didn't agree with.

In a video posted to Twitter, Rahm was asked about the PGA Tour's 'top players' featuring in 20 events, with his response: "I wouldn't be surprised if that changes." Following the video, Westwood reacted, stating: "I’m sure this will be covered in the “strategic alliance “ Jon."

His comments caused some reaction from fellow players and individuals in the golf world, as Eddie Pepperell responded: "Hard to know what to make of you these days Lee. You’ve taken the money moving to LIV (which is fine), but surely keeping quiet would be a better, classier way to go about things at this point? Just a thought."

That response, which got significantly more likes and retweets than Westwood's, caused Lee to then get into a war of words with his fellow countryman, as the 49-year-old tweeted: "I nearly missed this tweet Ed. Are you saying I’m not allowed to express my opinion on Twitter? I thought that was what social media was made for?"

Again, Pepperell's response garnered more likes and retweets, with Pepperell commenting: "It is! (Wouldn’t I know) Suppose I was just suggesting you read the room. You’ve done well out of this, and moving forward quietly might be best. We know you think Keith f****d up and that the DP Tour is in the bin.. but yeah, take your cake and enjoy it in the corner."

After a number of jibes, Westwood fired the last shot, as he stated: "We’ll always disagree on this. I’ve watched the DPWT and Aus tour + others be bullied by the PGA tour for the last 25 years and don’t think we should roll over to them & you think we should be a feeder tour and lose all our best players to them. Thus becoming the 5th best tour."

Westwood's response seemed to echo his words just a few days ago where, in an exclusive interview with Golf Digest, he called the PGA Tour "bullies" and "hypocrites."

The Twitter thread was also littered with a number of conversations between Westwood and other users. In one thread, the Englishman seemed to call out some fellow professionals for not sticking with the DP World Tour, as Westwood tweeted: "Have a look where people played in the second part of 2020 when the tours opened up after Covid to see who supported the ET and who didn’t."