Lee Westwood Looks Back Fondly on His 'No-Brainer' First LIV Season
DORAL, Fla. — Lee Westwood’s LIV Golf season ended Saturday as his Majesticks team was defeated 3-0 by Smash in the three-match format, with Westwood losing 4 and 2 to one of the hottest players in the series, Peter Uihlein.
For Westwood, it was a blow, but at the same time it was a terrific season as he was always the perfect player to join LIV Golf.
At 49, the former world no. 1 has been playing professional golf since 1993, the same year that "Frasier" debuted on NBC and "Jurassic Park" was hauling in money as the top box office draw.
Lee Westwood spent his 30th year in professional golf in LIV, banking more than $3.5 million in on-course earnings.
Kittinun Rodsupan/AP
In his 30th year between the ropes, Westwood was clearly slowing down and, as many players do at his age, started looking at the future and what some would call an exit strategy.
The PGA Tour Champions was an option, but not a permanent one once Westwood found out about the multiple pro-ams and the small amount of money involved in the purses.
The Legends Tour, the DP World Tour’s senior tour, has even less money in their purses, leaving Westwood looking for alternatives.
Captain and owner of the Majesticks Golf Club was never in the cards until it was, and the upfront money was nothing to sneeze at.
“I put this on 'what do you want to do when you finish playing?'” Westwood said was the standard question from friends. “And everybody's standard quote in my position is it's a little bit of course design, television commentary and maybe a few seniors events. Nobody ever said, get involved in a franchise and carry on playing.”
That is where Westwood finds himself in Miami this week, the best of both worlds, still a player and a franchise owner.
When Westwood set his Majesticks franchise up, he created three equal partnerships along with teammates Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson.
All three have an equal share of the franchise and they contracted with the fourth player, Sam Horsfield, with all four locked into LIV and the Majesticks through the 2025 season.
Westwood was captain for most of the season and Poulter took over the role this week, wanting to play other captains in the match play format. Poulter beat the Iron Heads' Kevin Na on Friday but lost to Smash's Brooks Koepka on Saturday.
“I think when you're working you've got to do your work to suit your own life,” Westwood said of his decision to make the move. “Obviously cash comes into it, I've said all along, when I stood in front of everybody at Kiawah Island in a press conference [at the 2021 PGA Championship], if anybody came in front of me with that kind of money, it's a no-brainer for me.”
He made more than $3.5 million in the first seven LIV Golf events and finished 17th on the individual money list.
In 2023, the Englishman will be focusing on playing on multiple tours when he turns 50 in April: the 14 events he is contracted to LIV Golf but also events on the DP World Tour and Legends Tour, as well as major championships including U.S. senior majors.
Ironically, the Legends Tour is courting Westwood for next season.
“They've asked me to play a few, unbelievably,” Westwood said. “The regular (DP World) tour is trying to ban me, and the Legends Tour texted me asking me if I'll play and saying they've got a budget to pay me, that's how messed up all this is.”
One of the benefits Westwood has found from his time at LIV is the closeness and fraternity that has developed due to all the outside noise.
What Westwood calls a "backlash" that has been driven by certain parts of the media, certain players and people at the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, has brought all the players together.
And in turn making the 48 feel more like a family.
“I know Bryson, I know Phil, I know DJ a lot better than I used to know them,” Westwood said. We've all come much closer together. We mix a lot more. It reminds me of how the European Tour used to be 25 years ago. You know, that kind of camaraderie.”