DP World Tour declines request from LIV Golf players to rescind fines and bans

Member players competing in the new series had hoped to play in next week's Scottish Open but all were absent from the field list released on Friday evening

Ian Poulter was one of 16 players to sign a letter to the DP World Tour demanding a reversal of the fines and bans issued for taking part in the LIV Golf Invitational Series. Getty

The DP World Tour has declined a request from members of the LIV Golf Invitational Series to rescind their fines and permit their participation in the Scottish Open next week.

The field for the Scottish Open was released on Friday evening, and no golfers linked to the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV circuit appeared on the list.

LIV players were banned from three upcoming DP World Tour events and fined £100,000 ($120,996) after playing in the LIV's debut event outside London.

In a letter to the DP World Tour, 16 players asked for resolution by "5:00 p.m. on Friday" and demanded the bans and fans were rescinded. Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood were among those who signed the letter, hopeful they will be able to tee it up at the Scottish Open without taking their challenge through the court system.

"Instead of spending our time, energy, financial resources and focus on appeals, injunctions and lawsuits, we would implore you ... to reconsider your recent penalties and sanctions," the letter reads, according to the The Telegraph.

Players didn't have to wait that long for a firm and apparently final response from DP World Tour chairman Keith Pelley.

"Before joining LIV Golf, players knew there would be consequences if they chose money over competition. Many of them at the time understood and accepted that. Indeed, as one player named in the letter said in a media interview earlier this year: ‘If they ban me, they ban me.' It is not credible that some are now surprised with the actions we have taken," Pelley's statement read.

Fourteen of the top 15 players in the Official World Golf Ranking will play the Scottish Open, a tune-up for the Open Championship, which is being co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour for the first time. Only Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy has chosen to sit out.

The LIV series began its first US-based tournament on Thursday outside Portland, Oregon. LIV's top-ranked golfer, world No 17 Dustin Johnson, sits top of the leaderboard after two rounds alongside Mexico's Carlos Ortiz.