Lee Westwood claims LIV Golf provides a sporting guarantee that is more attractive to lucrative sponsors than the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
The emergence of the contentious Saudi-backed LIV series, comprising of 48-player mega-money invitational events, has fuelled an ongoing civil war within golf.
LIV CEO and the sport's chief disrupter Greg Norman has poached a number of elite names from traditional tours, and Westwood was one of the first players to sign up for the venture.
Westwood, 49, featured in all eight events in LIV's inaugural season and the enterprise will extend to 14 events with organisers hoping to build momentum in 2023.
Norman's series is backed by the Saudi-Arabian Public Investment Fund and much of this year's controversy has centred around players vastly increasing their wealth through a Gulf State linked with human rights violations - without any real jeopardy on the course.
LIV is yet to have the backing of a TV broadcaster and instead streamed all eight events in 2022 on their YouTube channel.
But Westwood is confident the fledgling series is only going to grow because of a contrasting and innovative product that rivals golf's status quo. And the former world no.1 insists the guaranteed 48-field events make the venture an exciting proposition for future sponsors.
“I see the determination in everybody’s who’s involved, and I think it’s going to go from strength to strength," he told Bunkered.
"People are getting so defensive because they’re worried because they know it’s a good product because they know LIV can guarantee sponsors these 48 players on these weeks of the year. Nobody else can do that. The PGA Tour and DP World Tour can’t.”
“A sponsor might pitch up, put in $12million and say, ‘Great, so Rory [McIlroy] will obviously be playing then’ and they’ll be told, ‘Oh no, Rory can’t play.
"You’ll have to pay him appearance money to be guaranteed him turning up. That’s not what a sponsor wants to hear when they’ve just poured $12million into an event, is it?
"Whereas with LIV, it’s all cut and dried. There’s certainty and that’s worrying for all of these other tours.”
The PGA Tour has bumped its prize money and given more tournaments elevated status with an agreement in place that makes star players obliged to compete in the bigger events. The move bids to combat LIV and rectify the issues raised by Westwood.
And European Ryder Cup stalwart Westwood is adamant LIV is only receiving significant backlash because it provides a series threat to the established main tours.
“Let’s face it, LIV’s very different," he added. "I think that’s why there’s such a negative approach to it from the other tours. It gives things that they can’t give and they realise that and it’s threatening to their product.“
