LIV Golf’s Lee Westwood is trolled by English professional golfer Eddie Pepperell

Lee Westwood has not had a good season.

For the first time in his professional career he did not play in a major league. Instead, he has played in 11 LIV golf events, failing to record a single top-10 finish.

Westwood’s struggles were on full display last weekend at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey, where he finished the tournament dead last with 20 over.

Cameron Smith won the LIV Golf Bedminster event by seven shots, prompting Westwood to respond with a laughing emoji to a tweet with the updated Official World Golf Ranking.

Smith dropped from eighth to ninth despite the win.

Westwood, a staunch supporter of LIV Golf, thought this was a joke – LIV golfers do not receive OWGR points.

English golfer Eddie Pepperell, known for his comedic presence on social media, decided to hit back and hit back at Westwood. He did it cheekily.

“I’ll tell you what’s funny Lee,” Pepperell he tweeted. “You earn 3x the average UK annual salary in one week for shooting +20 in three rounds.”

Westwood, a co-captain of the LIV Golf Majestics GC team, received $120,000 for finishing last. hence why Pepperell was chirping the 50-year-old Englishman.

But Pepperell didn’t stop there.

He criticized Westwood for playing like a “turnip”. He also slammed professional golf – including the PGA Tour and Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL Golf Championship – for pandering to money.

“Professional golf used to play well to make money. (Still mostly are to be fair) It’s not jealousy to point out how LIV rewards (in some cases) poor performance heavily monetarily. It’s not something I can personally accept,” Pepperell said famous.

“It’s all for laughs,” Pepperell goes on. “From winning £100,000 last week to playing like a turnip to TGL/PIP. Pro golf has degraded to being all about the money. Maybe it always has been, and I’m just naive, but it doesn’t do much to improve the sport and really “grow the game”.

LIV Golf’s supporters have argued that they are growing the game.

Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

The same can be said for those who support the PGA Tour, mainly because of its partnership with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

However, the purses on both tours continue to swell and Pepperell, never afraid to be honest, just told it for what it is.

Just like he did at the 2018 Open Championship, when he admitted he played the final round “hungover” despite shooting a 3-under 67 alongside Phil Mickelson.

Pepperell delivers regular laughs, but also provides consistently honest insight.

Jack Milko is a staff golf writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough very.