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As soon as the PGA Tour suspended players who competed in the rival LIV Golf Invitational Series, it seemed inevitable that the circuits’ battle for the best players in the world would end up in a courtroom.
On Wednesday, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and nine other LIV Golf players filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court. Three of the players, Matt Jones, Hudson Swafford and Talor Gooch, are also seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow them to compete in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
After a summer of drama, defections and stunning developments, the gloves have officially come off.
“I don’t like that they’re suing the PGA Tour because they’re suing the players as well,” PGA Tour player Billy Horschel told ESPN on Wednesday. “We are the PGA Tour. I am the PGA Tour. Collin Morikawa is the PGA Tour. Justin Thomas is the PGA Tour. The 200-plus members are the PGA Tour.”
Here are some of the biggest revelations from the lawsuit filed in federal court in the Northern District of California:
Is the PGA Tour colluding with the majors?
Lawyers representing the suspended players believe that the PGA Tour’s bans on players who join LIV Golf “are vastly strengthened if the ban encompasses not only PGA Tour events, but also the four majors,” which are organized by separate governing bodies.
“The Tour is aware that if it can foreclose LIV Golf players from having access to these events — or even create enough credible doubt about whether participation in LIV Golf will end a player’s chances of playing in those events — LIV Golf will find it prohibitively difficult to sign and sustain a critical mass of players to field a competitive elite-level tour,” the lawsuit said.
The players’ lawyers allege that the PGA Tour “has pressured and encouraged the Major organizations to join its group boycott and to prevent LIV Golf from entering the global golf ecosystem.”
LIV players who were eligible to compete in the majors were permitted to play this year.
Some of the…
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Source : espn
