Page 16 - aruba-today-20230510

A16 SPORTS
Wednesday 10 May 2023
Lee Westwood chose money and his European tour fate

By DOUG FERGUSON cost them a hefty price to
AP Golf Writer return.
Lee Westwood has every Westwood says no one
reason to be sad about the told him the extent of the
end of his European tour punishment. Would that
career. have mattered? The Sau-
Westwood once relished dis were offering more than
the memory of playing 20 he made in his sterling ca-
tournaments in a row on reer, along with a $20 mil-
the European tour sched- lion prize fund every time
ule until he finally won his he played. At his age with
first career title in the Volvo declining skills, that’s hard
Scandinavian Masters. Was to turn down.
he determined to keep “As a European tour mem-
playing until he won? ber, I was allowed to be a
“No,” he said with a laugh. member of the PGA Tour
“I kept playing because I without any problem for
was 23.” all those years,” Westwood
Not since Colin Montgom- told The Telegraph. “Tell
erie has a European player me, what is the difference?
of that stature stayed true Just because LIV is funded
to his roots. The 50-year- by the Saudis a country
old from England played where my tour used to play
at least 12 times in 28 con- Lee Westwood hits his shot from the 16th tee during the second round of LIV Golf Singapore at the and where we were en-
secutive seasons on the Eu- Sentosa Golf Club on Sentosa Island in Singapore on Saturday, April 29, 2023. couraged to play?”
ropean tour, no small task Associated Press This is where Westwood is
considering seven of those this to himself. Westwood, Garcia and stand out because of their mistaken. The difference is
years he also played the He was free to choose, and Ian Poulter were the most Ryder Cup pedigree, and LIV was not an “additive,”
minimum 15 events to be a Westwood chose instant prominent players to resign that might be the biggest as Norman likes to say. It
PGA Tour member. riches from Saudi Arabia’s from the European tour last blow to Europe. None of was a threat, a commer-
“I wouldn’t change those sovereign wealth fund to week, a month after a U.K. them was likely to be in cial challenge, a disrup-
years for the world and feel play in a rival league that arbitration panel ruled that Rome this fall to try to ex- tor. Norman talked about
I made a contribution to threatened the very tour to players who signed with tend a European winning free agency finally coming
the tour,” Westwood told which he had been loyal all LIV Golf committed serious streak on home soil that to golf, which is hogwash.
The Daily Telegraph in an these years. breaches and the tour had dates to 1997, but Europe Even a federal judge in
extensive interview. That can’t be overlooked. every right to punish them. loses a level of experience California during one of the
Stats don’t lie. He played There has to be conse- All but Garcia has paid that can’t soon be re- early rulings concluded LIV
590 tournaments on the quences. He should have the fine of 100,000 pounds placed. was more restrictive than
European tour. He won 25 known that, even if LIV Golf ($125,000) for playing in Keith Pelley, the CEO of the PGA Tour.
times across four decades. CEO Greg Norman told LIV’s debut outside Lon- the European tour, had Westwood has been at
He captured the Order of players they could have it don last June. Still unclear no alternative. He has to heart of European golf for
Merit three times, the last both ways. is whether the Saudi-run answer to the dozens of the last 30 years, and his
one at age 47. Remember, it was Norman league, which pledged to players who chose not to contributions should not
“So no, I never would have who said in a text to Sergio pay legal fees, also paid chase free money. This was be forgotten. No one be-
believed it had ended like Garcia some 15 months the fines. no time to forgive and for- grudges him chasing a
this,” he said, “and there ago about the PGA Tour: LIV has always been about get. Pelley made it clear stupid amount of money
has to be a bit of sadness, “They cannot ban you for the money, whether it’s he wasn’t going to ban at this stage in his life. Dit-
of course.” one day let alone life. It is a coming or going. anyone that was the tact to for all the others in the
There also must be the shallow threat.” More resignations are cer- of PGA Tour Commissioner twilight or beyond of their
harsh realization that he did Ahem. tain to follow. Those three Jay Monahan but it would careers.q

Jackson, Holiday, Lopez headline

NBA All-Defensive Team

NEW YORK (AP) — Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. of Memphis and Mil-
waukee’s Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez headlined the NBA’s All-Defensive team Tues-
day.
Also voted to the first team were Cleveland forward Evan Mobley and Chicago guard
Alex Caruso.
Jackson, the NBA leader with 3.0 blocked shots per game, received 96 of 100 first-team
votes and finished with 195 points for his second All-Defensive team selection. Holiday
was just behind him with 94 first-team votes and 192 points, earning a fifth career selec-
tion (three firsts, two seconds.)
Lopez, the runner-up to Jackson for Defensive Player of the Year, had 185 points and 85
Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. reacts during the first-team votes.
second half of Game 5 of the team’s first-round NBA basketball Boston guard Derrick White topped the second team, followed by eight-time All-Defen-
playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, sive selection Draymond Green of Golden State. Toronto’s O.G. Anunoby, Dillon Brooks
April 26, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn.
Associated Press of Memphis and Bam Adebayo of Miami rounded out the team.q