LIV Golf has seen numerous players exit over the last month as the rebel league winds its way through Chapter 11 bankruptcy in hopes of restarting and getting LIV Golf 2.0 off the ground. Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Lucas Herbert, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter are among the marquee names who have left in recent weeks. But several notable players have yet to commit to staying or leaving, including Lee Westwood.
The 53-year-old Westwood was among the first to sign with LIV Golf in 2022. While Westwood doesn’t regret his initial decision to join LIV, he told The Chipping Forecast Podcast that he hasn’t committed to being part of LIV 2.0.
“I’ve seen everybody’s statement and I just don’t get it. I won’t be making a statement. It’s nobody’s business but mine where I go and play golf,” Westwood said. “And I don’t feel like I’ve got to put a press release out [for] where I go and work. I currently am unemployed. I haven’t signed up to anything anywhere. There’s nothing been presented to me that was agreeable for LIV 2.0. There’s still a lot of things on that that would need fine-tuning.
“Deadlines have come and gone, and I’ve heard nothing, whether I have to sign or I don’t have to sign. I haven’t signed 2.0. I haven’t signed anything. This [Restructuring Support Agreement between LIV Golf and BC Partners] everybody talks about, I haven’t signed that. So literally, I’m unemployed.”
Westwood told co-hosts Eddie Pepperell, Andrew Cotter and Iain Carter that rejoining the DP World Tour is a possibility. However, Westwood resigned his membership along with Poulter and Richard Bland in 2023 after an arbitration panel ruled that the DP World Tour could sanction players for playing in conflicting events without a release. Westwood said he is considering rejoining the DP World Tour but understands he would face a 10-tournament suspension and wouldn’t be able to tee it up until May in Turkey.
The DP World Tour’s new hardline stance also could factor into Westwood’s calculus for his future. DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings has said that going forward, any player who elects to play on LIV Golf 2.0 will not be able to also tee it up on the European circuit.
Westwood also told The Chipping Forecast that, at 53, he’s eyeing the senior circuit while deciding how much of a schedule he wants to play.
“I’ve looked at the start of next year, and I’m going to enter the Sunningdale Foursomes with Sam, my son, first week in March,” Westwood said. “And then there’s a senior event the week after the Masters, PGA Senior Championship in Florida. So that might be the first two tournaments that I play before teeing it up in Turkey if I did re-sign with the European Tour, but I’m not even sure about that.
“At the age of 53, do I want to be doing that? I’m not sure I want to.”
When discussing LIV 1.0 and his decision to join the then-Saudi-backed rebel league, Westwood didn’t regret his decision to take a large amount of money from a sovereign wealth fund. But he also isn’t surprised that LIV 1.0 failed.
“A massive financial package was put in front of me – I would have been stupid [to turn it down],” Westwood said. “[But] that wasn’t solely the reason that I signed up with LIV. “I have no problem saying part of it was financial. I’ve made a fortune over the last four and a half years.
“I don’t really have to play golf again, but I still love playing golf, so it’s given [me] the option of what to do over the next few years.”
Westwood told the podcast that, from what he saw up close, LIV failed because of “waste” and how it was run.
“I think it was the running of it more than anything,” Westwood said about why LIV failed. “I think the way the business was structured, there was too much waste, really. I think there is a business there.
“I think there is a business there — if LIV 2.0 gets off the ground, it will be a successful business. Can they get the players? Time will tell.”
Westwood’s comments come the same day Rahm spoke for the first time since his lawyer told the New Jersey Bankruptcy Court that his client found the terms of LIV 2.0 “unacceptable” and would not participate in the reboot.
On Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, Rahm explained why he was leaving a league where he was the headliner alongside Bryson DeChambeau, who is committed to LIV 2.0.
“As much as I liked the project and the idea on, let’s say, LIV 1.0, I wasn’t thrilled with the changes they were doing to 2.0,” Rahm said at the Abu Dhabi Championship. “It wasn’t anything special, anything that stood out. I just didn’t like where they were going with 2.0.
“There were too many unknowns,” added the two-time major winner. “It seemed like it was going a bit away from team golf. It became more of a regular tournament. It wasn’t really ever much of a consideration.”
LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy in September and filed an RSA with BC Partners Global last month, in which BC Partners agreed to provide up to $300 million in cumulative financing to help the league emerge from Chapter 11 and restart. The RSA gives BC Partners full discretion to decide whether LIV Golf has secured the “critical mass” of player commitments needed to do business. In mid-October, LIV’s lawyers told the court that they believed they would know by the end of October if they were winding things down or starting LIV 2.0. That deadline, along with the “soft” deadline for player commitment on Oct. 25, passed without a word about the league’s future. LIV remains bullish on its ability to retain enough talent to have a 10-tournament global golf league with DeChambeau as the headliner.
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