LIV golfers badmouthing PGA Tour and DP World Tour don't deserve to be at Wentworth, says Rich Beem

England's Ian Poulter is one of 18 LIV golfers playing at Wentworth this week (Picture: PA)

Former US PGA champion turned Sky Sports commentator Rich Beem believes players who bad-mouthed the tours where they made their name when joining the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Series should not be competing in the DP World Tour’s flagship event this week.

DP World Tour members like Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia are among 18 LIV golfers playing this week’s BMW PGA Championship after their suspensions for playing in the inaugural event of the Saudi-backed breakaway were temporarily stayed on appeal, with the full hearing set for February.

"It doesn’t portray golf in a good light when you have guys going over to this other series and then they bad-mouth the tours they were on,” said Rich Beem, who was up in Ilkley earlier this week supporting the Age Partnership Yorkshire Invitational.

Spain's Sergio Garcia plays from the 5th fairway during day one of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club, Virginia Water. (Picture: PA)

"I’m sorry but I think the product the PGA Tour had with all the benefits was a pretty good gig. And yet some guys think it’s okay to speak ill about it.

"That part of it bothers me. I don’t care where you play golf but for them to say bad things about a tour that gave them every opportunity to showcase their skills and their talents and paid them a lot of money and to get on TV for the world to see, then yeah, that’s not such a bad gig is it? I’m sorry, I’m not buying that what the DP World Tour and PGA Tour did or didn’t do was bad for you.”

Beem believes LIV has been disruptive to the game of golf but since Open champion Cameron Smith headlined six more players joining in the wake of last month’s FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour, there have been no new announcements.

And with the much-vaunted 48-man fields filling up for future LIV Series events, Beem believes the sting will soon be taken out of the headline-grabbing nature of the Saudi-backed attack on the traditional golfing tours.

Sky Sports broadcaster Rich Beem (Picture: Stephen Pond/Getty Images)

"When there’s no new players going into it are we really going to be that interested to see who plays and what the results are?”, asked Beem, rhetorically.

"It’s on YouTube but I wouldn’t know how to find it.

"Right now it’s a disruption in the game and that was their goal. I thought they were going over the LIV to play less and play for more money. It seems to me some of them are trying to play more golf."