DP World Tour releases statement regarding recent player sanctions

The DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, issued a press release on Thursday informing the adoption of sanctions against 26 players affiliated with that circuit.

The reason for the measures is that those golfers played on both the LIV Tour and the Asian Tour between June 22, 2022 and April 2, 2023, without receiving authorization from the DP World Tour.

According to the statement, the decision was evaluated and adopted by a panel acting in accordance with the Conflicting Tournament Regulation. The document reads that the DP World Tour had "a legitimate and justifiable interest in enforcing its regulations with the imposition of sanctions such as fines and suspensions."

The statement also quantifies the number of players subject to sanctions at 26:

"In total, 26 players were today informed individually of the sanctions applicable to them based on the specific conflicting tournaments they each played in, as a DP World Tour member, without being granted a release."

"These sanctions include fines and, where appropriate, tournament suspensions. The sanctions imposed were determined on a case-by-case basis; acknowledging differences between the events in terms of the impact on the DP World Tour’s broadcast partners, sponsors and stakeholders."

Although the exact penalties imposed are not stated, it is made clear that, in some cases, fines of between £12,500 and £100,000 ($13,652 and $109,216) are involved. In other cases, the fines are combined with suspensions of up to eight DP World Tour tournaments.

The suspension sanctions will begin with the Porsche European Open, which will be played from June 1-4, 2023, as this is the first tournament for which the list of participants has not yet been made official.

DP World Tour Sanctions: Repercussions

The list of players who received disciplinary measures has not been made public; however, repercussions have already begun. At least, one of the golfers involved has already made statements to the press.

It is the Swedish Henrik Stenson, who, according to Golf Digest, resigned from the DP World Tour after learning of the sanction he received for his appereances at the LIV Tour.

Henrick Stenson at the LIV Golf Invitational - Bedminster, July 29, 2022 (Image via Getty).

Stenson told to Gof Digest:

“It is sad that it has come to this. But it is what it is, and it certainly wasn’t unexpected. They left me with no other choice, so I have resigned. That’s it. I don’t really feel like it will do any good to dig into this too deeply.

"I’m appreciative of what the tour has done for me over the years. But they have chosen how they want to view the future. And we have obviously done the same. Unfortunately, they don’t go together at this point."

"I received a letter, as did all the other players involved, I hear. The tour has taken a stand on the LIV events we all played in and that left me with no decision to make really,” he added.

Stenson even gave some clues as to the amount of the fine:

“I haven’t added up the numbers on how much I was fined. It was anywhere between £50,000 and £75,000 per LIV event, which added up to a substantial amount. I don’t feel like me spilling the beans and airing my views on all this is actually going to be what I should do. Doing that is only going to make the situation even more infected than it already is.”