Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau among 11 LIV golfers to file antitrust lawsuit against PGA Tour

Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and nine other golfers suspended by the PGA Tour for participating in LIV Golf filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour on Wednesday.

Additionally, three of those golfers are seeking temporary injunctions from a federal judge allowing them to compete in the upcoming FedEx Cup playoffs.

The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, asks for permission relief Taylor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones to play in three FedEx Cup playoff events, starting with the FedEx St. Jude next week in Memphis.

The golfers’ attorney wrote in the lawsuit, “The penalty that these players cannot compete in the FedEx Cup Playoffs is substantial and irreparable,” and a temporary injunction is needed to prevent it. prevent irreparable harm they will then be unable to participate. “

Carlos Ortiz, Ian Poulter, Peter Uihlein, Jason Kokrak, Pat Perez and Abraham Ancer are the other plaintiffs identified in the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN on Wednesday.

Last month, two player managers confirmed to ESPN that the US Department of Justice had opened an investigation into the PGA Tour’s treatment of its players and whether it engages in anticompetitive conduct during its ongoing battle with LIV Golf.

“As part of a carefully orchestrated plan to beat its competitors, the Tour has threatened lifetime bans against players who play even for a single LIV Golf event,” the lawsuit states. know. “It has supported these threats by imposing unprecedented suspensions on players (including Plaintiffs) threatening irreparable harm to players and their ability to pursue It has threatened sponsors, suppliers and agents to force players to give up their chance to compete in LIV Golf events, and it has orchestrated an illegal boycott of a group to the European Tour to deny their members the right to participate in LIV Golf.”

In a memo sent to PGA Tour players on Wednesday, commissioner Jay Monahan wrote that the tour “will continue to protect members from complying with regulations written by and for the players.”

“We are prepared to defend our membership and oppose this latest attempt to disrupt our Tour, and you should trust the legitimacy of our position” , Monahan wrote in the memo, a copy obtained by ESPN. “Essentially, these suspended players – now employees of the Saudi Golf Federation – have left the Tournament and now want to return. With the Saudi Arabia Golf Federation on pause. , they are trying to use lawyers to force them to enter the contest with our members in good standing.

“It is an attempt to use the TOUR platform to promote yourself and recognize your interests and efforts. Allowing re-participation in our events will affect the Tour and the competition. , to the detriment of our organization, our players, partners and fans. The lawsuit they filed somehow expects us to believe otherwise, that’s why we are intends to clarify his case clearly and forcefully.”

According to a lawsuit filed by LIV Golf members, PGA Tour players who appeared in the first three LIV Golf tournaments — a group that included Mickelson, Gooch, Swafford, Jones, Uihlein and Poulter — are facing suspensions. almost two years from the tour, at least until March 31, 2024.

The lawsuit says Mickelson, the six-time major champion, was initially suspended for two months by the PGA Tour on March 22 for, among other reasons, “attempting to recruit players to [LIV Golf]”An appeals committee upheld Mickelson’s suspension. His request for reinstatement about two months later was denied because he played in the first LIV Golf event in London.

The lawsuit notes that DeChambeau, who has been suspended by the PGA Tour through March 31, 2023, “was sent notice that it would sanction him for talking to other Tour members about his experiences.” positive he had with LIV Golf.”

Three golfers who filed a lawsuit to compete in the upcoming FedEx Cup knockout round have been suspended from the PGA Tour after they competed in LIV Golf events without notice of the conflict event. Gooch is 20th in the FedEx Cup points rankings, Swafford is 63rd and Jones is 91st. The top 125 players in points will qualify for the first FedEx Cup knockout event.

Among other things, the players’ lawyers argued in their proposal that banning them from the FedEx Cup playoffs would limit them from earning Official World Golf Ranking points, which This will allow them to be exempt from participating in the four major championships next season.

“The Tour’s conduct served no purpose other than to harm players and resulted in joining the first meaningful competitive threat the Tour has faced in decades,” the lawsuit said. . “The prohibition of Plaintiffs and other top professional golfers from participating in their own events reduces the strength of the Tournament’s course and degrades the quality of the product they provide to golf fans by prevent them from seeing many of the top golfers participating in Tournament events.The only conceivable benefit to the Tour from degrading its own product in this way is to destroy competition. Indeed, the Tour has explicitly admitted its anti-competitive intent was to attack and injure the players.”

FedEx St. Championship. Jude and BMW Championship, the second leg of the FedEx Cup knockout round, each prized $11.5 million. The End of Season Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta has a $75 million dollar bill, with $17.5 million going to the winner.

More than two dozen players, including past major champions Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick ReedDeChambeau and Sergio Garcia, was suspended by the PGA Tour for competing in LIV events. Johnson and Garcia are among the players who have resigned from the PGA Tour membership.

The lawsuit alleges that the PGA Tour pressured major championship governing bodies to make its bid. It added that the president of Augusta National Golf Club, Fred Ridley, “threatened to disqualify players from The Masters if they entered LIV Golf”, that he “has personally coached a number of Masters participants. 2022 is not played in the LIV Golf Invitational Series,” and that Ridley declined to meet Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf to understand the new race’s business model. “

A number of suspended players have been exempted from at least some majors as past champions. For example, Mickelson has career exemptions at the Masters and PGA Championships, exemptions at the US Open until 2026, and exemptions at The Open until he turns 60 (he’s 52). DeChambeau, who won the US Open 2020 at Winged Foot, is exempt in that event until 2030 and at the Masters, The Open and PGA Championship until 2025.