Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Richard Bland have resigned their memberships on the DP World Tour, the circuit announced Wednesday.
All four players have been sanctioned by the tour for joining LIV Golf and had initially challenged those fines in the United Kingdom, but an arbitration panel upheld the penalties last month.
“Their resignations, however, along with the sanctions imposed upon them, are a consequence of their own choices,” a statement from the European tour read. “As we have consistently maintained throughout the past year, the tour has a responsibility to its entire membership to administer the member regulations which each player signs up to. These regulations are in place to protect the collective interests of all DP World Tour members.”
The DP World Tour today confirmed it has received membership resignations from Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Richard Bland and Lee Westwood who were sanctioned for serious breaches of the Tour’s Conflicting Tournament Regulation committed last June.
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 3, 2023
Westwood is a 25-time winner on the DP World Tour and won the circuit’s season-long title in 2000, ’09 and ’20; while Garcia has 16 victories in Europe and Poulter is a 12-time winner.
The three players have also been the core of the European Ryder Cup team for decades with Garcia holding the all-time points record (28.5). Westwood has played on seven winning teams and Poulter is undefeated in his singles in his career, going 6-0-1.
“The DP World Tour would like to take this opportunity to thank the four players for the contribution they have made to the Tour and in particular to Sergio, Ian and Lee for the significant part they have played in Europe’s success in the Ryder Cup over many years,” the statement read.
The statement also said there will be an update on “other sanctioned members” on Thursday.