Chutzpah Alert! European Tour Chief To Punish Players Teeing Up In Saudi Event He Helped Create

Keith Pelley and Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan in happier times

It wasn’t long ago that Europe…DP World Tour Chief Keith Pelley was slobbering all over Saudi Arabia and it’s desire to host golf tournaments, defending the due diligence his Tour did in partnering with people who do awful things to other people on a fairly regular basis, and overall just perplexed anyone would question the decision to partner with the Kingdom even after a journalist was murdered and chopped into pieces.

But playing a competing tour? Now the hammer drops!

As James Corrigan reports, it seems the threat of Saudis poaching current European Tour members has Pelley going to the Chief Executive equivalent of a sharp sword. Those who want to play in the former European Tour event planned for March at Royal Greens—not that kind of Royal—will get treated very, very badly.

But Telegraph Sport understands that the Tour and its chief executive, Keith Pelley, are not willing to compromise and will sanction any member who decides to play regardless. Except, in a calculated move by the Tour, the type and the scale of the punishment will not be revealed to the rebels until after the event.

Cue the Frankenstein analogies!