Seve Ballesteros today accused the European Tour of waging `a war' against him after he was disqualified from the Italian Open.
Ballesteros was disqualified for signing for an incorrect score after refusing to accept a one-stroke penalty for slow play.
The five-times major winner then called his own press conference in which he alleged tour officials were out to get him because of his membership of the so-called `Gang of Four' who complained about how the tour was being run.
The 46-year-old claimed the Seve Trophy - a Ryder Cup-style competition between teams from Europe and Great Britain and Ireland - would not survive because the tour's executive director Ken Schofield was against it as the tour "don't have any piece of the cake."
Ballesteros also alleged that Schofield does not speak to his compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal because of his membership of the `Gang of Four,' which also contained Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer.
In 2000 the quartet demanded more information on how the tour's finances were managed and questioned the partnership between the Tour and management group IMG.
The Tour responded by appointing independent auditors to examine their finances and announced their findings the following year, which seemed to placate the rebels.
However, Ballesteros clearly feels the issue has not been forgotten and insisted his disqualification today was all down to being `against the system.'
"It's a personal problem from the past," Ballesteros said. "It's a war and this is the continuation of that.
"We disagreed with the way the tour was being run. We think it is bad in many ways. There was no transparency, nobody knew what was going on with the partnership between the tour and IMG. It was a 50/50 share, but the tour should be independent.
"When we decided to hold the second Seve Trophy in Ireland the Tour tried to boycott the event because they don't have a piece of the cake.
"They had the dates for this year's event set up but because we didn't have the sponsor confirmed they took away the dates and the rankings don't show in the Tour News.
"The Seve Trophy will disappear because Mr Schofield is against it but after 30 years (on tour) what should I do? I am supposed to take nothing, go home and disappear?
"I have two things to do. Go home and disappear or go and play in America."