PGA Tour players could opt to take the "nuclear option" and boycott events if LIV Golf defectors successfully challenge their suspensions, former Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III has warned.
The lucrative and incredibly controversial series is funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and it has divided golf, leaving the PGA and DP World Tours fractured after the new series poached some of the sports biggest names. Several of the world’s most prominent players have decided to switch to LIV Golf, including the likes of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Dustin Johnson.
Players who have joined the LIV Golf series - bankrolled by a Saudi Arabian regime, with the country known for its human rights issues - were handed immediate and indefinite bans from the PGA Tour. The DP World Tour issued fines of £100,000 each for players who played in first LIV event, as well as banning them from July's Scottish Open, but won a court battle to get the punishments temporarily delayed.
However, Love believes players who have remained loyal to the PGA Tour are frustrated with the rival series, which have announced ambitious plans to expand for the 2023 season.
Furthermore, on Wednesday it emerged that Phil Mickelson was among 11 LIV Golf stars who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, challenging their suspensions.
And Love believes a legal challenge from players indefinitely suspended from the PGA Tour, such as Mickelson, could ignite a full civil war within the traditional professional circuit. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Wyndham Championship, Love said: “If the LIV guys sue and are allowed to play on the PGA Tour, the players are enough fed up with it.
“We understand that we make the rules on the PGA Tour and the commissioner is enforcing our rules and we don't want those guys playing, coming and cherry-picking our tournaments.
“We hold all the cards. We say to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and to Washington, ‘No, we support the rules. We don't want those guys playing. We don't care what the courts say’.
“The nuclear option is to say, ‘Fine, if they have to play in our events we just won't play’.”
Players such as Johnson, Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed will be illegible to represent the United States in the Presidents Cup, which takes place in September. Love is set to captain the team, and he has told a number of players that they will have to deal with the ‘consequences’ of their actions.
“I told the players that I've talked to that have gone or thinking about going, it's your decision and you do what's right for you, but understand (the) consequences,” Love continued. “I tried to sound like my dad and I probably wasn't very good at it.
“I didn't argue. I said you can be Tiger Woods or you can be banned from the game, take your pick. But understanding the consequences, you signed up for these rules.
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“I had to commit by last Friday or I don't get to play this week. I have to play 15 tournaments or I don't get to vote and I don't get my retirement money. You have rules that you have to adhere to.
“I said you're fixing to break a rule that's a big rule and you're going to get penalised for it. And Jay's (Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner) been saying it for a year and some of them understood that, some of them said it's not going to happen, and some of them just flat out lied, ‘I’m not doing this, I'm not doing that’.”
Amid a recent swarm of stars crossing the divide and playing for LIV Golf recently - including former Europe Ryder Cup captain Henrik Stenson - Love added: “I don't know what's going to happen from here on out, but I know it's going to be a fight and the players are getting more and more unified against it.”
Stenson secured a two-stroke victory at the third LIV Golf event - which took place Trump National Golf Club Bedminster - to earn a £3.37 million payout, more than the £2.08 million awarded to Australian Cameron Smith for securing the coveted Open title last month. His win comes after the Swede was publicly stripped of his captaincy following his switch to LIV Golf.
