Mickelson to be taken off LIV suit

Says he doesn’t need to be involved

Phil Mickelson, the driving force among PGA Tour players in the rival LIV Golf series, and three other players asked a federal judge to remove their names from the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.

Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Ian Poulter filed separately to have their names removed. That leaves only three players — Bryson DeChambeau, Peter Uihlein and Matt Jones — and Saudi-funded LIV Golf as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in early August.

Mickelson’s decision was not a surprise. He had said two weeks ago that he no longer needed to be involved in the lawsuit now that LIV Golf has joined as a plaintiff.

“I do think it’s important that the players have the right to play when and where they want, when and where they qualify for. And now that LIV is a part of it, that will be accomplished if and when they win,” Mickelson said

World Cup basketball

Kelsey Plum scored 20 points, Chelsea Gray added 16 and the United States routed Bosnia and Herzegovina, 121-59, to break the U.S. record for consecutive wins at the World Cup. The victory was the 27th in a row for the Americans, who haven’t lost since the 2006 semifinals against Russia. The Soviet Union holds the overall World Cup record with 56 consecutive wins from 195986.

Auto racing

NASCAR docked William Byron 25 points and fined him $50,000 for deliberately spinning Denny Hamlin in a retaliatory move missed by scoring officials. The penalty dropped Byron to eight points below the cutline heading into Sunday’s race in Alabama. The Hendrick Motorsports driver had been 17 points to the good, and third in the standings, before the penalty.

College basketball

Memphis was placed on three years of probation and publicly reprimanded by the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Process, which declined to punish men’s coach Penny Hardaway or issue an NCAA tournament ban. Memphis had been accused by the NCAA of four Level I violations and two Level II violations.

College soccer

The Pitt women (10-1-0, 30-0 ACC) are ranked No. 14 in the latest United Soccer Coaches Rankings. This marks the third consecutive year the Panthers have appeared in the weekly poll.

Pitt reached as high as No. 19 in the poll last season and No. 12 in 2020. Pitt, which is 32-15 over the past two-plus seasons, is off to its best start in history and has matched the 2015 squad for its best start ACC play.