(Reuters) – Royal Bank of Canada said on Wednesday it decided to terminate sponsor agreements with Dustin Johnson and Graeme McDowell after the former major champions decided to play in the opening event of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series next week.
World number 13 Johnson was both the highest-ranked and most surprising golfer named to the field late on Tuesday for the June 9-11 event at Centurion Club outside London that takes place at the same time as the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto.
“As a result of the decisions made by professional golfers Dustin Johnson and Graeme McDowell to play the LIV Golf Invitational Series opener, RBC is terminating its sponsorship agreement with both players,” RBC said in a statement. “We wish them well in their future endeavours.”
RBC announced Johnson as a brand ambassador in February 2018 when he was ranked number one in the world. Two years later the long-hitting American won the RBC Canadian Open.
RBC is also the title sponsor of the PGA Tour’s Heritage tournament held in mid-April on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, where McDowell triumphed in 2013 a few months after becoming a golf ambassador with the Canadian bank.
The decision by RBC also comes after Northern Irishman McDowell, who counts the 2010 U.S. Open among his four career PGA Tour victories, said the consequences of joining LIV Golf were both “concerning” and “scary”.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
