Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, and nine other professional golfers filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour on Wednesday challenging their suspensions over their participation in the competing LIV Golf tournament.
Mickelson, who has three Masters titles, DeChambeau, who won the 2020 U.S. Open, and others are seeking a temporary restraining order, which could allow them to play in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs starting next week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
LIV’S GOLF TOURNAMENT AT TRUMP’S BEDMINSTER COURSE STRUGGLES
Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones, Ian Poulter, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak, and Peter Uihlein also joined the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, arguing that the PGA is damaging their careers by suspending them.
“The Tour’s conduct serves no purpose other than to cause harm to players and foreclose the entry of the first meaningful competitive threat the Tour has faced in decades,” they wrote in the suit.
The PGA Tour suspended 17 golfers last month, including Mickelson and Gooch, because they “did not receive the necessary conflicting event and media rights releases,” violating the tour’s regulations by participating in the LIV Golf event.
Gooch, Swafford, and Jones argue that they should be allowed to participate in the FedEx Cup Playoffs while the PGA Tour hears their appeals.
The PGA has cited its rules barring members from appearing in other events without the commissioner’s permission. Some professional golfers have been lured to its deep-pocketed rival, LIV Golf, with appearance fees and prize funds.
LIV Golf, the upstart challenge to the PGA Tour, debuted this year and announced plans to expand next year.
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LIV’s accession in the golfing world has been overshadowed by its ties to Saudi Arabia. A tournament at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, last weekend drew criticism from families of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for its ties to Saudi Arabia.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers tied to the attacks were Saudi, and there have been links between some Saudi officials, such as Omar al Bayoumi, believed to have been a former Saudi intelligence officer, and some of the hijackers.
