Insults, fear and loathing at DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship as golf is torn apart

The $US8 million pot being fought over during the next four days in the BMW PGA Championship almost seems the least of prizes. The future direction of golf, the status of the Ryder Cup, the public profiles of some of the most renowned stars and even personal friendships are all at stake.

Standing on the range, you can just about imagine that a genteel sport goes on as normal as LIV rebels and Tour loyalists practice side-by-side; as a defector such as Lee Westwood cuddles the young kids of a European stalwart like Thomas Bjorn; as veteran caddie Billy Foster gives a mischievous, “GMac, what the hell are you doing here?” as he walks past Graeme McDowell painfully explaining that he does not want to fall out with anybody.

It is a fragile facade. You do not have to look far, or dig deep, to find that this ancient game reverberates with mistrust and acrimony.

No one’s words carry more import than Rory McIlroy so when he said he would find it “hard to stomach” seeing those who had grabbed Saudi cash at the flagship DP World Tour event and expressing his hatred for how the game was being torn apart, it was a call to arms.

It remains to be seen over the next few days whether crowds, fuelled by alcohol, pick their own sides. Will European veterans such as Westwood and Ian Poulter continue to enjoy undiluted loyalty? “Go DJ! Dismember the opposition,” as one heckler in the United States shouted at Dustin Johnson recently after he signed up to Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed LIV circus.

This is not a case of LIV against the rest of the world – it is far more complicated than that – but perhaps no high-profile relationship sums up the widening schism than McIlroy and Sergio Garcia, once brothers-in-arms for Europe in the Ryder Cup but now “fractured” according to one source even though McIlroy was an usher at Garcia’s wedding in 2017.

Few were impressed, and most were outraged, when a splenetic Garcia ranted “you’re all f--ked!” at DP World Tour players in the locker room at the BMW International Open in Germany. After an apparent demolition of the European game, one former Ryder Cup player said: “The things he has said are shocking.”

The worst of it has still not been published, according to Billy Horschel, the defending BMW champion. Garcia is unrepentant. Grabbing him at Wentworth to ask what he made of McIlroy’s stomach turning, the Spaniard responded: “I’ve been a member of the European Tour more years than he has so I think that also has to be respected.” Others would ask where his respect went with that rant.

The idea that they will combine once more for the cause of Europe seems unthinkable, certainly to golf’s hierarchy, though the authorities cannot declare anything with certainty given that the court case that will essentially decide if LIV players will be banned from the DP World Tour does not take place until February. Even then, expect appeals.

How much is the Ryder Cup damaged by all this? Two highly credible teams could be fielded tomorrow but no one can rule out further high-profile defections.

Henrik Stenson was sacked as Europe’s captain for taking about $US50 million to join LIV so Luke Donald, his replacement, is left struggling to pretend at Wentworth that the show goes on. “I’m not a lawyer,” he protested when pushed on who should be available for selection.

He has an old friend like Garcia making contact to see if the door is still open, McIlroy making his own feelings clear as he seeks to be a powerful shaper not just of a golf ball but the entire sport, while Rahm, for all his objections to LIV, can see nuances and recent history.

“How many Ryder Cups has Sergio played? Ten? Most points ever earned in the Ryder Cup. Westy has been a part of a lot of them as well and many others. If it was up to me I would love to reach a resolution for some of them being able to play,” Rahm says. Like we said, it is complicated. Battles within battles, and old friendships within them too.

There are those who think that Garcia, Westwood and Poulter have more than earned their place at Wentworth – live and let LIV – and reserve their greatest ire for the likes of Abraham Ancer or Talor Gooch flying in to take slots this week that might go to Europeans grinding on the circuit. Saudi cake and European prize money too.

Mike Lorenzo-Vera may be the angriest of all, at least publicly. The Frenchman previously became embroiled in an argument with one LIV player on the range and had to be restrained by his caddie. He had suggested players might consider physically blocking LIV players from teeing off at the Scottish Open.

Lorenzo-Vera reserves a particular fury for Stenson for “spitting on the best trophy ever” while Garcia also came in for criticism. “Some guys are gone and not making any trouble, but Sergio left insulting the players and the tours, and this is a different story,” he said.

There are 144 players in the field this week but conversation is dominated by 17. This has wider consequences. BMW’s sponsorship, and their wider partnership, is up for renewal. Is a company going to commit to a sport in such convulsions?

Where will the DP World Tour be at the end of this? There is a cracking field at Wentworth – and sellout crowds at the weekend – but European competition can live down to scathing criticism from Garcia and Westwood that it has surrendered far too much to the PGA Tour in America. A string of low-key events in recent weeks produced an average world ranking of the winner at a lowly 334.

As Westwood stepped up criticisms of Keith Pelley, chief executive of the European game, Eddie Pepperell snapped back on social media. “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?”

When Westwood suggested he was entitled to his opinion, Pepperell said: “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--ked up and that the DP Tour is in the bin, but yeah, take your cake and enjoy it in the corner.”

They would make an interesting pairing at the weekend though, for the opening two days, LIV players are sprinkled through nondescript groups so that they draw minimal attention on television.

While the breakaway players are said to have been going out of their way to be polite, and to heed the request not to wear LIV-branded clothing – Patrick Reed is said to have been casting around for fresh garb – they are braced for barbs.

“Right now we are allowed to play but of course they are not going to make it very nice for us,” Richard Bland said. He expects some heat but throws back accusations of hypocrisy from at least one fellow pro.

“I know Eddie has been critical of Saudi Arabia but he’s happy to play in the Saudi International,” Bland said of Pepperell who, for his part, insists that he has at least acknowledged Saudi’s record on human rights.

Some even see McIlroy as an overly-sanctified figure. One agent, who wished to remain anonymous, said that McIlroy has been held up as the spokesman against sportswashing and yet he said in an interview with CBS in July that he would welcome Saudi money, “as long as it’s done in the right way”.

Is this about Saudi wealth in particular, who gets to run the game or who takes home the most cash? It seemed more of the latter when Justin Thomas, a PGA Tour loyalist, railed against the lawsuit launched in the US by LIV golfers against a ban. “They’re suing me, they’re suing Rory, they’re suing Tiger, they’re suing every single one of us,” Thomas said.

On it goes, with Rahm observing that, for all the strife, the game was ripe for change, good may yet come of it all and the only intractable problem “is death”. Perhaps, but as long as Greg Norman, a man with a long grudge against the PGA Tour, and Jay Monahan, the Tour’s commissioner, are banging heads, no one can see solutions other than those enforced in court.

And if a LIV player wins at Wentworth, expect golf’s feuds to get much worse before they get better.

– The Times

Originally published as Insults, fear and loathing at DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship as golf is torn apart