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Ian Poulter blasts DP World Tour over media restrictions; DP World Tour responds

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Ian Poulter was once the darling of the European golf world.

Known as ‘The Postman’ for his ability to always deliver the points at the Ryder Cup, his inspiration as a team player far outstripped the 12 European and three PGA titles he won as an individual.

However, since joining the LIV series, some of those fervent supporters have gone by the wayside, some even jeering him at the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews, and things don’t seem to have improved yet.

Initially banned by the DP World Tour from three events, including the Scottish Open, Poulter overturned that decision in the courts, eventually missing the cut at The Renaissance Club before finishing tied-62 at St. Andrews and tied-23 at last weekend’s Czech Masters.

Whilst that was his best finish since Abu Dhabi in January, the 46-year-old couldn’t wait to take to social media to show his annoyance at apparently being treated differently to other members of the tour.

His Twitter post briefly told us what he thought:

However, on his Instagram story, Poulter went to town:

“I thought I was still a member of the DP World Tour but I guess they have other ideas,” he claimed, before continuing.

“Really sorry that I am unable to share any good TV clips of us from the @czechmastersofficial or any @dpworldtour tournament moving forward as @dpworldtour have denied us any footage that was freely available and they’d be happy to share on request in the past. We will do what we can to share content as we can. Sorry friends.”

“I thought I was still a member of the @dpworldtour but I guess they have other ideas. Well actually I am but I’m being treated very differently to a member. Sorry fans I hope we all have a resolve on this as soon as possible.”

This week, the DP World Tour hit back hard.

A spokesman for the ruling body told Bunkered.com that

“Based on the recent ruling by Sport Resolutions UK, Ian Poulter is permitted to play in tournaments on the DP World Tour and is at no competitive disadvantage in those appearances.

“However, his participation is not contingent upon him receiving any off-course benefits from the DP World Tour.”

Poulter seems to be playing on one reason given by Phil Mickelson for joining LIV at the start of the controversy. Back then, Mickelson said he wanted to instigate change in the way the PGA Tour handles media rights and the options offered to players.

The ‘freedom’ to play less golf, spend more time with family and the shotgun 54-hole starts were also offered as valid reasons for jumping ship.

As Mark Fox, of The Plugged Lie podcast, replied though:

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19th Hole

‘I still think it was his fault’ – Beau Hossler on the college incident with Scottie Scheffler that almost resulted in a physical fight

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Back in January, John Fields, who’s the head golf coach at the University of Texas told the story on the Subpar podcast of when his players Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler almost got in a physical fight while they were on the Longhorns golf team.

“That was an almost fight”, he said.

“Beau walks by this golf ball and he looks at it, and for whatever reason he thinks that he’s outdriven Scottie by 15 yards,” Fields said. “So, Scottie doesn’t think anything — we walked right past the ball and Beau look at the golf ball. Scottie hits his shot, we get up to the [other] ball, Beau’s turn now, and he looks down and goes, ‘This is not my ball.'”

Coach Fields shared that Scottie was livid at Beau.

“You would’ve thought Mount Vesuvius just went off, like we had a volcano 15 yards below us. Scheffler got so mad when he figured out that he’d hit the wrong ball, he ran up to the green, 260 yards on a dead sprint, picked up the ball, ran back, and threw it at Beau’s feet. Beau goes ahead and hits the right shot, and Scottie has lost the hole now. He’d just lost a hole, but it’s killing him. And now, they’re jawing against each other on the way up [to the green], and finally on the next hole, on the par-3, I told Beau, ‘We are not going another step farther until you apologize to Scottie for that.’”

Fast forward to 2024, and Beau Hossler was asked about whether or not Coach Fields exaggerated the story after his opening round at the Houston Open yesterday.

“No, it wasn’t inflated. He [Coach Fields] probably deflated it if anything. We were playing this mess-around tournament before the regional there. Basically we were both playing a match. I wasn’t playing him, I was playing a New Mexico kid and he was playing a New Mexico kid. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Lubbock, but it’s very, very, very windy.

“No. 2 is kind of this blind par 5 I think. We both hit it down the middle and whatever. I walked past the first ball, I walked to the second ball, it’s 10 yards in front. He hits the ball in the back and then I realized that that was not my ball that I was standing next to. We had different markings, but we both were playing a Titleist whatever, 3 with a Longhorn on it. One had a marking and mine didn’t. He wasn’t happy. I was like, well, listen, you’re the one who hit the wrong ball. I understand like it’s not a — but like you hit it, I didn’t.”

“It was a bad deal. It didn’t mean anything, but it was just — we’re really competitive, both of us,” Hossler said. “That was the really cool part about our golf team at Texas, it was like every player on the team was like either a very good player or a pretty good player that was very competitive. We wanted to kick each other’s ass all the time.”

“That was obviously a penalty and he wasn’t happy about it. I don’t blame him for not being happy about it. I still think it was his fault, he’s the only one who hit the wrong ball. I agree I should have checked closer that it was — that that was actually my ball, but one way or the other it’s a good story.”

Luckily, the two remained friends and the feud didn’t last very long. “That’s the good part of being friends. Once we got on the plane home, it was OK.”

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19th Hole

3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

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While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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19th Hole

‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

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Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

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