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Lee Westwood branded PGA Tour players “hypocrites” over changes made to the circuit in response to LIV Golf.

The former world No.1, one of the first high-profile stars to defect to the Saudi-funded rebel tour, claimed the tour “have always been bullies”.

Radical alterations were made to the PGA Tour, including more “elevated events” and tweaks to the Player Impact Program, in response to LIV.

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But in an interview with Golf Digest, Westwood slammed the tour and its players.

“I laugh at what the PGA Tour players have come up with,” he said.

“It’s just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there. They all say LIV is ‘not competitive.’ They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the ‘short fields.’

“Now, funnily enough, they are proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV. Hopefully, at some point they will all choke on their words. And hopefully, they will be held to account as we were in the early days.”

Westwood also slated the tour over its strategic alliance with the DP World Tour, accusing it of “hogging” world ranking points by poaching the best players from other tours.

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“I’m not convinced by the strategic alliance because I’ve seen how the PGA Tour has behaved over the years,” he said.

“There’s not been much ‘give.’ They have always been bullies and now they are getting their comeuppance. All the PGA Tour has done since Tiger came on tour is up the prize purses. In turn, that has taken all the best players from Europe away from the European Tour.

“They’ve had to play in the States, taking all their World Ranking points with them. That was their strategy: ‘Put up the money. Get all the players. Hog all the World Ranking points.’ Which becomes self-perpetuating. What we have seen over the last few months is just LIV doing what the PGA Tour has done for the last 25 years.”

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