Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood knew what they were getting into when they jumped to LIV Golf in 2022. No DP World Tour releases meant fines, and those fines meant sanctions, which meant membership becoming untenable. It was not going to work out for them, and in European golf, membership is everything. By May 2023, both had resigned rather than keep fighting. The checkbook stayed closed. Until now.

According to Golfweek, as of June 19, 2026, Poulter and Westwood have finally paid up their dues. The news comes days after Jon Rahm cleared his dues worth $3 million. As of Westwood and Poulter, each paid around £850,000 (about $1.1 million). These penalties stacked up over eight LIV events in 2022. Now, four years later, the slate is clean.

LIV Golf had taken care of these fines until 2025 for the players, but at the time, Poulter and Westwood didn’t let their league sort it out for them, as they thought the fines weren’t fair. So, if they weren’t paying it themselves, how could they let their employer pay it?

Now, paying the fines makes them eligible to return to the DPWT after facing a necessary suspension. This timing is important as LIV Golf’s future hangs in the balance of PIF cutting its funding and LIV struggling to find investors. 

The slate is clean, but whether it is completely spotless (Ryder Cup eligibility) is another question that needs to be answered. And it is all because of a 2017 regulation, introduced long before LIV Golf existed and designed as a loyalty safeguard.

“Players cannot be a European Ryder Cup captain or a vice-captain if they decline membership of the European Tour or fail to fulfill their minimum event obligation in any season, from 2018 onwards,” it stated.

Luke Donald confirmed the clause’s reach when it blocked Sergio Garcia from a vice-captain role ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup, saying the rules would need to change for any of these players to serve in a leadership capacity, and paying a fine to settle old scores does not change the already existing rule.

Poulter’s been pretty open about how he feels. In a 2024 interview, he basically said the DP World Tour just doesn’t need him, Westwood, or Stenson like it needs the guys still playing for points. Even the Ryder Cup is special for him, and that’s why the 2017 rule change must sting way more than any fine ever could. Back in 2010, he was honest about what the biennial event meant to him.

“I’m pretty passionate about this format. I love the Ryder Cup; I always have. I’ve watched so many matches over the years, Sevé [Ballesteros], Ollie [José María Olazábal], Colin [Montgomerie], Nick [Faldo], all the guys—they just pour out passion upon passion in this event,” he said at the time. “I love it. I love it from the first tee. I love it for the songs. And I love it with 11 teammates. It truly is the best tournament in the world and always will be.”

The same goes for Lee Westwood. He even talks highly of the Ryder Cup.

“I’ve said before that the Ryder Cup is not the European Tour versus the American Tour. It’s Europe’s best golfers against the US. I love playing in the Ryder Cup. I love the team environment,” he told the Guardian back in 2010.

Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood’s Ryder Cup Legacy: Why Their Future in It Remains Uncertain

Poulter’s been in seven Ryder Cups, and while his record shows 15 wins, eight losses, and two halves, that doesn’t really tell the whole story. The guy never lost a singles match, which is wild. Remember Medinah in 2012? Europe was down 10-6 on Saturday night, and Poulter’s putter basically sparked that epic comeback.

Then there’s Westwood, who played in eleven Ryder Cups, ten of them back-to-back starting in 1997. With 21 wins, he’s right up there with the top European scorers ever.

Everyone always thought these two would end up as captains, but once they joined LIV, that was pretty much the end of that talk, even though nobody came out and said it. The 2017 rule took care of it anyway.

The fines are settled. The Ryder Cup leadership door is not. For two players who built more of their legacies in team golf than almost anyone of their era, that remains the part of the bill no checkbook reaches.