PGA Tour protests LIV Golf for enticing golfers to breach existing contracts with the tournament

The PGA Tour has sparked an ongoing legal battle between its organization and LIV Golf. After LIV joined a lawsuit filed by 11 of its players this summer – eight of whom have since removed their names from the record – against the PGA Tour for alleged anti-competitive and monopolistic behavior. , the PGA Tour responded with a lawsuit of its own .

In a set of objections filed this week, the PGA Tour argued that the LIV, by providing “horrible amounts of money” to golfers signed to the PGA Tour, caused those players to breach the contract of the PGA Tour. surname. The set of objections was filed as part of the PGA Tour’s legal response to LIV’s antitrust lawsuit.

The basis of the counterclaim, according to ESPN:

The counter-suit was filed as part of the PGA Tour’s response to LIV Golf’s federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, in which LIV Golf claims the PGA Tour illegally suspended players competes in LIV Golf tournaments and is using its monopoly power to compete in squash.

The Tour claims that LIV Golf ran a campaign that paid its players “terrible amounts of money to get them to breach their contract with the Tour in an attempt to use LIV Players and the golf game to get rid of the calendar.” Saudi Arabia’s recent brutal history and the promotion of the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s Vision 2030 initiatives.”

Furthermore, the PGA Tour argued that the LIV not only passed by causing a breach of contract, but also imposed stricter parameters than what the PGA Tour claimed. This stems from the initial hearing on whether three LIV Golf members could compete in the 2022 FedEx Cup. During that proceeding, Judge Beth L. Freeman shared a candid remark about how the LIV, not the PGA Tour, is imposing itself in heavy-handed and possibly even monopolistic ways.

Eight of the players who originally filed the lawsuit against the PGA Tour have dropped out altogether, many of them citing that LIV’s participation in the lawsuit no longer makes their presence necessary. Only Bryson DeChambeau, Peter Uihlein and Matt Jones are still listed as plaintiffs with LIV as an organization.

The PGA Tour still claims that players have violated the agreements they have as PGA Tour members.

“Through this lawsuit, LIV asks the court to nullify these perfectly legal terms with the stroke of a pen after causing the remaining player plaintiffs to violate the same regulations with hundreds of millions of dollars. money from Saudi Arabia,” the response read. “The player plaintiffs still in the case – eight of the original 11 players have withdrawn from this lawsuit – just want to enrich themselves without regard for the promises they made to the Tour and members when they’re on the Tour..”

It could be quite a while before things are resolved as testing won’t begin until early 2024.

Rory McIlroy this week detailed the frustration of watching professional golfers split along tournaments throughout the year.

“I’ve always said that I think there’s a time and a place where everyone involved here should sit down and try to work together,” McIlroy said. “It’s very difficult for that to happen right now with two lawsuits going on.

“…But look, I don’t want a broken game. I never have. You look at some of the other sports and what happened and the game of golf is breaking itself right now. And that’s not good for anyone. It’s not good for people on this side or the traditional type of system, and it’s not good for people on the other side. It’s not good for anyone. There is time and place for it, I just think right now, with everything in place, it might not be the right time.

“But that said, I don’t think we can let it last too long. So I give it all to everyone sitting around the table trying to figure something out for sure.”

With the lawsuits filed by both parties, there was a larger rift between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. A future where the two coexist at or near the top of the golf world seems more distant than ever.

“[Coexisting] unrealistic when you look at the fact that some players sued the PGA Tour, their owners sued the PGA Tour. It’s not on the card,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan ESPN. “It’s not in the cards and it’s not in the cards. I think we’ve been pretty consistent on that front.”