11 LIV players sue PGA Tour to challenge suspensions

Talk of lawsuits between the breakaway Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series and the PGA Tour has been just that. Until now.

As first reported in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, 11 LIV golfers are suing to challenge their PGA Tour suspensions. The group includes Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau.

Three other LIV golfers – Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford – joined in the lawsuit because they are seeking a temporary restraining order so they can play in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs.

The lawsuit states: “As the Tour’s monopoly power has grown, it has employed its dominance to craft an arsenal of anticompetitive restraints to protect its long-standing monopoly. Now, threatened by the entry of LIV Golf, Inc. (“LIV Golf”), and diametrically opposed to its founding mission, the Tour has ventured to harm the careers and livelihoods of any golfers, including Plaintiffs Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones, Bryson DeChambeau, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak, and Peter Uihlein (“Plaintiffs”), who have the temerity to defy the Tour and play in tournaments sponsored by the new entrant. The Tour has done so in an intentional and relentless effort to crush nascent competition before it threatens the Tour’s monopoly.”

Not long after, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan sent a memo to its players: “We have been preparing to protect our membership and contest this latest attempt to disrupt our Tour, and you should be confident in the legal merits of our position.”