19th Hole
Report: LIV rebels fly in for meeting with DP World Tour Chief Keith Pelley to discuss concerns over ‘strategic alliance’

This week’s BMW PGA Championship may well be the DP World Tour’s flagship event, but it has again been the scene of much controversy.
Back in 2010, players heavily criticized Ernie Els for his redesign of the Surrey track – Miguel Angel Jimenez saying, “If you had a Picasso in a frame would you say ‘Now I want to see a line there?” – and 12 years later it is again the scene of tension amongst players – this time between the 17 LIV players permitted to play, and the tour itself.
Already we have seen the DP World Tour place restrictions on all the LIV players, with organizer’s sending out notifications such as, “You will not be required to play in the Wednesday pro-am and out of respect for our broadcasters and your fellow competitors we would kindly ask you to consider not wearing LIV-golf apparel.”
Regular DP players Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick, winners of the FedEx Cup and U.S. Open respectively, also made their feeling known.
World No. 2, McIlroy, openly said,”Like it’s going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth in a couple of weeks’ time and seeing 18 of them there. That just doesn’t sit right with me,” whilst Fitz commented that it would be “odd,” to be playing alongside the so-called rebel golfers.
Sergio Garcia, one of the most heavily criticized and outspoken of the LIV players, said over the weekend that he was sure there would be tension but, “whoever doesn’t like it, too bad for them,” before flying out from Boston with several fellow LIV golfers to arrive in time for the DP World Tour’s AGM.
As reported by The Telegraph, players such as Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, and Garcia, challenged DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley to reveal more about the “strategic alliance” with the PGA Tour “as well as issues such as potential sanctions coming the LIV players’ way after the U.S. circuit issued indefinite bans.”
The publication spoke to one anonymous player, who revealed that Pelley “battled well.” However, another was more disappointed, saying, “We didn’t get in as many questions as we wanted and Keith just kept replying that ‘we’re in the middle of an ongoing legal case, so I can’t give you an answer.’ He also said that the DP World Tour was a pathway to the PGA Tour, but wouldn’t say “feeder tour.” At least his answers are down in writing now.”
Lee Westwood, embroiled with a few players on social media regarding the rights and wrongs of current golf politics, is reported as staying silent about the meeting but was happy to make a comment about the new ruling that awards the top-10 DP World Tour players a card for its U.S. partner.
“I mean, what company or organisation gives away its 10 best assets at the end of every year – especially to a rival or competitor?” Westwood said. “I’m not convinced by the strategic alliance because I’ve seen how the PGA Tour has behaved over the years. There’s not been much ‘give.’ They have always been bullies… I have been telling Keith and other members of his board how this is all going to go for 12 months now. I told him that getting into bed with the PGA Tour was a mistake.”
The Telegraph report that Westwood’s main issue is the reluctance of the then European Tour to accept a substantial offer from Saudi Arabia, allowing the formation of a substantial rival to the PGA Tour.
The report gives the reasons for the refusal:
“Pelley, however, has dismissed this, informing his members in June that “materially this was not a good deal for the European Tour” and that “the figures were nowhere near those being bandied about in the media and in the players lounge over the past couple of months”.
With tensions running high, and with no need to get up for Wednesday’s pro-am, many of the LIV contingent will appear at Tuesday evening’s players meeting, at which “Keith has said he will spend the entire hour taking questions on the ‘strategic alliance’ and LIV and any other concerns.” The rebels might find it easier to probe for their answers in that less formal setting. It should be even spicier.
More from the 19th Hole
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.