Ryder Cup: Lee Westwood has 'no regrets' about turning down chance to captain Team Europe to play on LIV Golf

03.11.2026, 18:20 skysports.com

Lee Westwood has "no regrets" about turning down the chance to captain Team Europe at the 2023 Ryder Cup to join LIV Golf, as the former world No 1 revealed he is yet to sign with LIV 2.0.

During a wide-ranging interview on The Chipping Forecast podcast, the 53-year-old said he was currently "unemployed" and added LIV 2.0 had not presented him with "anything agreeable" for the league's proposed relaunch in 2027.

Westwood has represented Team Europe at the Ryder Cup on 11 occasions, having tied Sir Nick Faldo for the most appearances at the biennial tournament during his last outing at Whistling Straits in 2021.

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Having worked as a vice-captain under Thomas Bjørn at the 2018 Ryder Cup in France, the Englishman was one of the DP World Tour's leading candidates to be appointed captain for the tournament in Rome in 2023.

"Whistling Straights had happened and then quite shortly after that I had a conversation with [DP World Tour chief executive] Guy Kinnings, where he talked about the Ryder Cup captaincy and the captain in Italy," Westwood, who joined LIV Golf in 2022, said.

"It was put to me whether I'd like to be Ryder Cup captain, and I had started discussions with LIV. I think I asked: 'If I did go to LIV, could I still be Ryder Cup captain?'

"They didn't say no, but it was made clear that there would be very little chance of it, and I made the decision to go to LIV.

"You make calls in life, don't you?" Westwood added. "You make a choice, and I have no regrets over the choice I made."

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The DP World Tour dictates a player cannot be a European Ryder Cup captain or vice-captain if they decline membership to the tour or fail to fulfil their minimum event obligations.

Henrik Stenson was later named captain for 2023 before he also joined LIV Golf, with the baton ultimately being handed to Luke Donald.

Westwood, who jointly holds the record for the most appearances for Europe at a Ryder Cup, was asked whether he would consider being captain in the future.

"I don't know, I get asked that question a lot," Westwood said. "I've always just wanted to play, I love playing golf.

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"When I was vice captain, everybody has a little say in the team room, and I said to the guys: 'You better enjoy it as much as you can because when it's gone, you really miss it, and I'll tell you one thing worse than playing practice rounds in a Ryder Cup is watching other people playing practice rounds in a Ryder Cup.'

"I loved being a Ryder Cup player and getting in that environment. I don't know whether I'd have been a good Ryder Cup captain, because of what I said in France. I don't know whether I would have liked watching."

Delving further, Westwood said: "I'm not good at really pushing control.

"That's one of the reasons I started playing golf, I played a lot of football and rugby and cricket before taking up golf. The reason I enjoy playing golf is because the buck stops with me.

"I didn't want to have to rely on other people and that probably goes back to a little bit of the reason why the Ryder Cup captaincy wasn't really that higher priority.

"When push came to shove, it wasn't the be-all and end-all for me. I'm not sure I wanted it enough."

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LIV Golfers have a deadline of November 16 to reapply for their DP World Tour memberships, and Westwood says he is deliberating whether to do so.

Should he reapply, he would face a 10-tournament suspension for his decision to resign his DP World Tour membership.

"I haven't signed up to anything anywhere, I haven't made a decision on anything yet," Westwood said.

"I am yet to have everything put in front of me and I have not really had any dialogue with the DP World Tour.

"I know if I sign up, I've then got to serve a 10-tournament suspension. I've looked at the schedule, and I feel like the first event I could play in on the DP World Tour will be the Turkish Airlines Open, which is the first week in May, so I haven't looked any further.

"There's nothing that's been presented to me that was agreeable for LIV 2.0. There are still a lot of things that would need fine-tuning; deadlines have come and gone, and I've heard nothing on whether I have to sign or not.

"I haven't signed [for] 2.0. So, I literally am unemployed."

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