In a Setback for LIV Golf, DP World Tour Wins Arbitration Case

LIV players who teed it up in early events on the Saudi-backed circuit will have to pay a DP World Tour-record £100,000 fine.

A decision and a win for the DP World Tour was released Thursday in London, as defecting LIV Golfers that played in the first two LIV events in 2022 will have to pay a £100,000 fine.

In a decision with significant ramifications for the Saudi-backed league, Sport Resolutions, a U.K. arbitration service, found that the 16 DP World Tour players that played in one of the first two LIV Golf events in 2022, despite their release requests having been refused by the Tour, committed serious breaches of the Code of Behavior and are required to pay the £100,000 originally imposed by the DP World Tour in June 2022.

“We welcome today’s decision by Sport Resolutions which upholds our regulations and our ability to administer them,” DP World Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley said in a statement.

The 61-page decision that was issued on April 3 by the panel found no merit to the remaining 12 appellants' claim that the Tour violated the Restraint of Trade and Competition Law of the UK and dismissed the appeal (four players previously dropped out of the claim).

It further found that the original sanctions of £100,000 by the Tour were not harsh and disproportionate, even though the largest fine previously issued by the Tour was £12,000.

According to the panel, the £100,000 fine had been chosen by the Tour because it represents a sum just lower than the prize money available to the last place participant in a LIV event.

“Although that does not to us to be a necessary yardstick, it is appropriate for the financial sanction to be set at a dissuasive level,” the panel said. “In the context of a player incentivized to sign up for a rival event backed by the resources available to LIV, a fine in the order of £12,000 would seem trivial.”

The panel decided not to suspend any player, but also did not suggest suspension were inappropriate if the Tour follows appropriate procedures as outlined in its own Tour regulations.

On June 28, 2022, Ian Poulter appealed the decision of a fine and suspension by the DP World Tour to Sports Resolutions.

Eventually other players appealed the DP World Tour sanctions, and those sanctions were stayed and fines and suspension out on hold.

The appeal was heard over five days between Feb. 6-10 in London with testimony by 16 different individuals either in person, by video link or witness statements.

The witnesses included Lee Westwood, Patrick Reed, LIV Golf COO Gary Davidson, Pelley and Poulter.

“We will now carefully consider the details of today’s decisions with our Board, our Tournament Committee and our legal advisors,” Pelley said. “And take the appropriate action in due course.”

“We disagree with the procedural opinion from the DP World Tour’s arbitral body, which has failed to address in reasonable substance why competitive forces must be upheld,” said Matthew Schwartz of Gibson Dunn, counsel to LIV Golf. "By punishing players for playing golf, the DPWT is seeking to unreasonably control players and it is the sport and fans that suffer. There are no winners."