Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley has slammed a number of LIV Golf players, as they get set to make their controversial DP World Tour return this week. 18 LIV rebels will appear at the Tour's flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship.
Their comeback comes as relations between both the PGA and DP World Tour and the breakaway Saudi-backed series remain fractured. The tournament in Surrey will kick off qualification for Europe's Ryder Cup team, which will take place in Rome next September.
It still remains to be seen as to whether LIV Golf rebels will be eligible to qualify for the 12-man team, after recent sanctions from both the PGA and DP World Tours.
2014 winning captain McGinley believes those who have chosen to jump ship to the Saudi-funded circuit should not be allowed to make the European team - comparing it to Liverpool star Mohamed Salah being able to pick and choose the team in which he plays for. The Irishman told The Times : "The players who have remained loyal to our tour, don’t want the LIV guys anywhere near the Ryder Cup.
"The feeling is that you cannot play [for] both sides. Mo Salah doesn’t get to play for Liverpool one week and Real Madrid the next. LIV is a rival tour.”
Two Ryder Cup stalwarts who have made the breakaway circuit move but will be at Wentworth this week are European stalwarts Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter. McGinley has played alongside and captained both at the Ryder Cup, but he now believes they are on 'different sides'.
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He went on: "It breaks my heart because I have an emotional connection with every one of those players. I will see Poulter and I’ll shake his hand at Wentworth, the same with Westwood and all of those guys that I shared team rooms with. That bond will never be broken.
“But you know, definitely, we’re on different sides now. And it’s really sad that it has come to this. Every one of those players knew the consequences when they signed with LIV. They also knew there was the potential for the Ryder Cup to be collateral damage in all of this."
Despite their return to the DP World Tour this week, tensions still remain high between those who have, and have not chosen to make the Saudi switch. European golf's poster boy Rory McIlroy revealed last week that teeing up alongside the LIV Golf defectors will be 'hard for him to stomach' at Wentworth on Thursday.
The tensions between the playing quota has proven all too much for one former Ryder Cup star and LIV member, as Martin Kaymer revealed he had withdrawn from the flagship event at the home of European golf due to the ongoing 'friction'. He told Golf Digest : " "Of course, there will be friction there, that's why I'm not going.
"I don't need to go to a place where, feel-wise, you're not that welcome. They don't say it, but [it's there]... I do love the European Tour and I do like Wentworth. I think it's a flagship event that people like to participate in. But under those circumstances, I try to stay in the area where the energy is high, where the energy is positive."
The BMW PGA will kick off on Thursday, but DP World Tour boss Keith Pelley has confirmed that no LIV golfers will be included in the event's featured televised groups, or be competing in Wednesday's pro-am. As well as this, they have been informed they are not allowed to sport any LIV branding whilst back at the Wentworth-based competition.
