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LIV and PGA Tour golfers converge this week at BMW PGA Championship

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Players from the LIV Golf Invitational Series have not played on the same course with their PGA and European tour counterparts since July’s British Open, which was won by a golfer — Cameron Smith — who has since left the PGA Tour for LIV. Since the year’s final major, the saber-rattling between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour (its European counterpart) and LIV has only gotten more pronounced, with LIV golfers and the league itself suing the PGA Tour on anticompetitive grounds and the PGA Tour unveiling a host of new features — most of them centered on paying its players more money — to counter the LIV threat.

But this week, 18 LIV golfers are in the field for the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in England. Yes, it’s going to be awkward.

‘I hate being hated’: LIV Golf’s new recruits face a harsh reality

Rory McIlroy, who has been a champion of the PGA Tour both on and off the course this season after winning the season-long FedEx Cup and becoming the tour’s most prominent anti-LIV voice, will play in the tournament alongside other PGA Tour stalwarts such as Jon Rahm, Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Justin Rose and Adam Scott. He did not seem all that thrilled about playing alongside the defectors when he was asked about it after winning the season-ending Tour Championship last month.

“I hate what it’s doing to the game of golf. I hate it. I really do,” McIlroy said. “Like, it’s going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth in a couple of weeks’ time and seeing 18 of them there. That just doesn’t sit right with me.”

McIlroy was even more blunt Wednesday, taking a shot at LIV’s tournaments, which require golfers to play one fewer round than most events on the PGA or DP World tours.

Defending BMW PGA champion Billy Horschel also piled on, asking why the LIV golfers were in England this week considering how many of them said the Saudi-funded breakaway tour’s shorter schedule would allow them to spend more time at home.

“I don’t think those guys really should be here. … The Abraham Ancer, the Talor Gooch, the Jason Kokraks: You’ve never played this tournament. You’ve never supported the DP World Tour. Why are you here?” Horschel told reporters Tuesday, though Kokrak is not among the LIV players in this week’s field. “You are here for one reason only and that’s to try to get world ranking points because you don’t have it.

“It’s pretty hypocritical to come over here and play outside LIV when your big thing was to spend more time with family and want to play less golf.”

But Gooch took to Twitter on Tuesday night to remind Horschel that Horschel hasn’t really played in too many DP World Tour events that weren’t majors or World Golf Championship tournaments, either:

Fellow LIV golfer Sergio Garcia said he doesn’t really care if his presence and that of his LIV contemporaries bothers anyone.

“I’m sure some guys will be tense about it [because] we’re going to go out there and play; what I’m going to do is support the European tour and that’s all I can do. Whoever doesn’t like it, too bad for them,” Garcia told Golf Digest during this past weekend’s LIV event outside Boston.

One LIV golfer, Martin Kaymer, has decided to skip the BMW PGA Championship because of all the awkwardness.

“Of course, there will be friction there. That’s why I’m not going,” Kaymer told Golf Digest last week. “I don’t need to go to a place where, feel-wise, you’re not that welcome. They don’t say it, but [it’s there].”

The PGA Tour has banned golfers who have played in LIV tournaments, but those golfers are allowed to play on the DP World Tour after an English arbitration judge ruled that the European tour could not punish the LIV golfers until the matter received a full judicial review. That won’t happen until February, and the LIV players are free to play on the DP World Tour at least until then.

In a memo sent to players last week that was obtained by the Golf Channel, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley addressed the “strong opposition” to the LIV golfers who will play at Wentworth and asked that they not wear any clothing that features LIV logos.

“They will not be given any on course competitive disadvantage — i.e. unfavorable tee times — but they will not be required to play in the pro-am on Wednesday and will not be in TV featured groups,” Pelley wrote in the memo.

The BMW PGA Championship — which is considered one of the European tour’s marquee events, if not its most prestigious — will be crucially important for some LIV golfers because of the Official World Golf Ranking, which does not yet award ranking points to LIV events and may never do so (LIV has applied for OWGR sanctioning, but a decision could be months away). The BMW PGA’s strong field means it will give LIV golfers a chance to stay in the OWGR top 50, which is generally the cutoff point for major championship qualification. (Past major champions receive long-term major invitations, so LIV golfers such as Smith, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau don’t have to worry much about their world ranking, and none of those players will be at Wentworth this week).

Gooch, for instance, ranks 46th in the OWGR, and a strong showing at Wentworth will keep him in the top 50. Otherwise, by continuing to play in LIV events that aren’t recognized by the OWGR, he will continue to sink in the rankings.

Other LIV golfers in the field this week include Ancer, Graeme McDowell, Patrick Reed and Lee Westwood. Rahm said their presence at Wentworth this week means lower-ranked golfers who don’t have the benefit of LIV’s Saudi riches are getting bumped out.

“What I don’t understand is some players that have never shown any interest in the European tour, have never shown any interest in playing this event, being given an opportunity just because they can get world ranking points and hopefully make majors next year,” Rahm told reporters Tuesday.

“A perfect example — a good friend of mine [Spain’s Alfredo Garcia-Heredia] is the first one out on the entry list right now. It doesn’t hurt me, but it does bug me that somebody who has played over 20 [European tour] events this year cannot be given the opportunity to play a flagship event because some people that earned it, to an extent, are being given an opportunity when they couldn’t care any less about the event.”



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Judge denies LIV golfers’ bid to play PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs

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The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs will take place without any of the players who defected to the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series.

A federal judge Tuesday denied the bid by three golfers — Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford — seeking spots in this week’s St. Jude Championship, which begins Thursday in Memphis. The trio had sought a temporary restraining order that would allow them to play in the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs, a three-tournament competition that includes the top 125 golfers in season-long standings.

In ruling against the players, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman said they failed to demonstrate their exclusion from the PGA Tour’s season-ending event amounted to “irreparable harm,” noting that they stand to earn more money by competing in the LIV Golf series.

Sally Jenkins: LIV Golf sellouts bailed on the PGA Tour. Now they want back in?

“The evidence shows almost without a doubt they will be earning more than they would have made and could have reasonably been expected to make in a reasonable period of time under the tournaments,” Freeman said.

The temporary restraining order request was part of a federal antitrust lawsuit filed last week by 11 golfers who contend their careers were hurt when the PGA Tour punished them for signing on with the competing LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed start-up that lured away some of the sport’s biggest names with eight- and nine-figure contracts.

A LIV spokesman said in a statement Tuesday: “We’re disappointed that Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones won’t be allowed to play golf. No one gains by banning golfers from playing.”

Tuesday’s hearing was narrowly focused on the temporary restraining order request, not the broader antitrust issues, but Freeman’s ruling and her comments pertaining to irreparable harm amount to an important legal win for the PGA Tour. The judge had access to some of the golfers’ contract details, which were redacted in court filings, and said the players clearly understood what they were forgoing by signing with LIV Golf.

“It appears to the court that the LIV contracts negotiated by the players and consummated between the parties were based on the players’ calculation of what they would be leaving behind and the amount the players would need to monetize to compensate for those losses,” Freeman said.

Phil Mickelson, 10 other LIV golfers, file antitrust suit against PGA Tour

The 11 golfers behind the lawsuit — Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Gooch, Swafford, Jones, Ian Poulter, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak and Peter Uihlein — were suspended by the PGA Tour when they made the leap to LIV Golf.

Based on the most recent standings, the three golfers seeking the temporary restraining order would have qualified to compete in the tournament — Gooch (No. 20 in the FedEx Cup standings), Jones (No. 62) and Swafford (No. 63) — but they’ve been banned by the PGA Tour.

In urging Freeman to deny the golfers’ requests, the PGA Tour’s attorneys said in court filings that the LIV golfers wanted “to have their cake and eat it too,” cashing the Saudi-backed checks while still trying to earn money from the PGA Tour’s season-ending tournaments. The tour’s attorney, Elliot R. Peters, told the court that allowing the LIV golfers to compete in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event would be “devastating” to the tour.

“If we’re ordered to lift the suspension and they show up Thursday morning to play with their LIV Golf hats and LIV Golf shirts and their news conferences are about LIV Golf, our event becomes a stage for our competitor,” Peters told the judge Tuesday. “… Wouldn’t LIV Golf love that? The opportunity to have its players promoting it at our marquee event? That’s not fair to the PGA Tour.”

While not addressing the antitrust claims, Freeman noted on multiple occasions that LIV Golf has made strides to become a competitive entity in a relatively short period of time. At one point, the tour’s attorney shared a slide that showed half of the top 10 players in the tour’s Player Impact Program last year left for the Saudi-backed breakaway organization.

“That’s remarkable,” Freeman said.

That group includes DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, but three tournaments into its nascent year, the LIV Golf ranks are apparently still growing. Cameron Smith, the Aussie who won last month’s British Open, has agreed to a $100 million contract and will soon jump circuits, according to the Telegraph, and his countryman Marc Leishman is also reportedly LIV-bound.

Smith is in the field at this week’s St. Jude championship and declined to discuss his plans at a news conference Tuesday. “My goal here is to win the FedEx Cup playoffs. That’s all I’m here for,” he told reporters. “I have no comment on that.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, Freeman didn’t spend much time considering the merits of the antitrust claims laid out in the lawsuit, focusing on the temporary restraining order request. The players’ attorneys told the court the golfers should be permitted to compete in PGA Tour-sanctioned events as they appeal their suspensions.

Is LIV ‘the future of golf’ — or just golf with a soundtrack?

The tour’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued the players waited too long — less than a week before the first round of the St. Jude Championship — to request emergency intervention, urging the court in a filing to “use its equitable powers to redress real emergencies, not engineered ones by parties who knowingly accepted multimillion-dollar payouts to place themselves in the situation they are in.”

Attorneys at times alluded to redacted portions of the court filings that apparently divulge details of the players’ contracts with LIV Golf. At one point Tuesday, the players’ attorney, Robert C. Walters, made reference to the player earnings from LIV events counting against upfront money they’ve received for signing on with the start-up series, something LIV officials have repeatedly denied.

While the LIV players’ lawsuit will continue — Freeman indicated a trial might not happen before next summer — the Department of Justice is also investigating the tour for potential antitrust violations, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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PGA Tour files motion in federal court to keep three LIV golfers out of FedEx Cup playoffs

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The PGA Tour has asked a federal judge to deny a temporary restraining order to three of its suspended members who left to compete on the rival LIV Golf Invitational Series and are seeking to participate in the FedEx Cup playoffs, arguing the players can’t “have their cake and eat it too.”

The three suspended members, Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford, are seeking relief from a federal judge to compete in the FedEx Cup playoffs, starting with this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee.

In a motion filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday, attorneys representing the PGA Tour called the players’ injunction request “legally baseless.” A hearing to consider the players’ motion for a temporary restraining order is scheduled for Tuesday in San Jose, California.

“Despite knowing full well that they would breach TOUR Regulations and be suspended for doing so, Plaintiffs have joined competing golf league LIV Golf, which has paid them tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed money supplied by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to procure their breaches,” the motion said. “[Temporary restraining order] Plaintiffs now run into Court seeking a mandatory injunction to force their way into the TOUR’s season-ending FedExCup Playoffs, an action that would harm all TOUR members that follow the rules. The antitrust laws do not allow Plaintiffs to have their cake and eat it too.”

In a statement Monday, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman reiterated his circuit’s belief that players are free agents and shouldn’t be forced to play exclusively on one tour.

“I believe players have the right to play when and where they choose so their talents can take them as far and high as possible,” Norman said. “I believe all players — whether they choose to play with LIV or the PGA Tour — understand and appreciate the purpose and importance of the players’ legal actions, across the globe. The PGA Tour is trying to cast this as ‘us’ against ‘them.’ The players know better.”

The three players and eight others, including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour last week.

“The punishment that would accrue to these players from not being able to play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs is substantial and irreparable,” the golfers’ attorneys wrote in the lawsuit, “and a temporary restraining order is needed to prevent the irreparable harm that would ensue were they not to be able to participate.”

The PGA Tour’s lawyers noted that Gooch, Jones and Swafford waited nearly two months to seek relief from the court, “fabricating an ’emergency’ they now maintain requires immediate action.”

“It doesn’t,” the tour’s attorneys wrote in the motion. “Their ineligibility for TOUR events was foreseeable when they accepted millions from LIV to breach their agreements with the TOUR, and they knew for a fact that they were suspended on June 9. The harm they now allege from their suspensions is 100% economic and capable of redress with money damages.

“Indeed, several other LIV players including four other Plaintiffs in this case recognize there is no emergency or irreparable harm; they too have qualified to play in the FedExCup but have not asked the Court for the extraordinary relief sought through this motion. The Court should use its equitable powers to redress real emergencies, not engineered ones by parties who knowingly accepted multi-million-dollar payouts to place themselves in the situation they are in.”

The top 125 players in the FedEx Cup standings are eligible to compete in the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind. Gooch is 20th in the standings, Jones is 65th and Swafford is 67th.

“LIV is not a rational economic actor, competing fairly to start a golf tour,” the tour’s attorneys wrote in the motion. “It is prepared to lose billions of dollars to leverage Plaintiffs and the sport of golf to ‘sportswash’ the Saudi government’s deplorable reputation for human rights abuses. If Plaintiffs are allowed to breach their TOUR contracts without consequence, the entire mutually beneficial structure of the TOUR, an arrangement that has grown the sport and promoted the interests of golfers going back to Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, would collapse.”

There are 122 players currently in the field for the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Three players who qualified aren’t participating in the first leg of the playoffs: Tommy Fleetwood (personal), Daniel Berger (back injury) and Lanto Griffin (back surgery).

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The wild story of how 87 golfers made the cut at the Wyndham Championship

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Eighty-seven.

That’s how many golfers survived the 36-hole cut at this week’s Wyndham Championship, the regular-season finale. It’s the most players to make the cut on the PGA Tour since the cut rule changed to low 65 and ties to start the 2019-20 season, breaking the previous high mark of 84 at the AT&T Byron Nelson in May.

There are 21 golfers, including Shane Lowry, who flew home and needed to hire a private jet to get back for his third round tee time (see photo below), Justin Rose and Mark Hubbard, who owe Chris Gotterup big time – at least a thank you note if not a good bottle of wine. When play was suspended on Friday at 8:20 p.m. due to darkness, seven golfers remained on the course with exactly 65 golfers at 2-under or better and 88 at 1-under or better. Four of the remaining players would determine the cut on Saturday morning when play resumed: Bo Hoag (-3 thru 16 holes) Chris Gotterup (-2 thru 17 holes) Austin Smotherman (-1 thru 16 holes) and Joshua Creel (E thru 17 holes).

Hoag made pars to complete a round of 69, while Creel parred in too, but was on the wrong side of the cutline at even-par 140.

Gotterup is a hero to 21 players who have weekend plans and a paycheck thanks to his bogey at the last hole. He went to sleep needing to make a 4-foot bogey to make the cut. He made it and the bogey at the last meant he signed for 69 and a 36-hole total of 1-under 139.

Wyndham Championship: PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ | Leaderboard

That brings us to the sad fate of rookie Austin Smotherman. He entered the week at No. 125 on the FedEx Cup point standings. The hot seat got too hot to handle despite a bogey-free 65 in the first round. On Friday, he was leaking oil, 4-over through 16, and facing a 12-foot birdie putt that would have lifted him to 2-under and bounced out all the players at 1-under when play was suspended.

With his 2022-23 Tour card and FedEx Cup playoff hopes hanging in the balance, Smotherman missed the birdie putt when play resumed at 6:47 am on Saturday. But thanks to Gotterup’s bogey, all he needed was a par at his last hole to make the cut on the number. It wasn’t to be. Despite finding the fairway at No. 9 with his tee shot, he pushed his approach at the par 4 from 158 yards and missed the green. Shortsided, his pitch ran 33 feet past the hole. Having to make the par putt, he didn’t come up short, but his do-or-die putt rolled 7 feet past the hole. He missed the meaningless comebacker, tapping in for double bogey and a round of 76.

As Max Homa tweeted of Smotherman, “I feel for him. That’s gotta be brutal to sleep on that with your season on the line #golf.”

The last time 87 players or more made the 36-hole cut on Tour was at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship (87). The score of 1-under 139 is the highest 36-hole cut at the Wyndham Championship since 2013.

Story originally appeared on GolfWeek

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Phil Mickelson and 10 Other LIV Golfers File Antitrust Lawsuit Against PGA Tour

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Eleven golfers on the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit—including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau—filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour Wednesday challenging their suspensions, the opening salvo in a legal fight that could reverberate across professional sports. 

The group includes three players—Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and

Matt Jones

—who are seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow them to play in the Tour’s

FedEx

Cup Playoffs, which begin next week. Each had qualified for the playoffs before signing on to play for LIV, before being told by the PGA Tour they were being excluded from the event because of their participation in the LIV series.

The PGA Tour has suspended players lured to its rival by extraordinary appearance fees and record prize funds, pointing to Tour bylaws that bar members from appearing in other events without the permission of the commissioner. Many of the LIV golfers, such as Dustin Johnson, resigned their PGA Tour memberships.  

The PGA Tour has said it believes those rules are appropriate, and legal. People familiar with the Tour’s thinking expect the Tour will say that its arrangement with players is akin to similar agreements that are ubiquitous across the economy.

In a memo Wednesday to players, PGA Tour commissioner

Jay Monahan

defended the suspensions. He wrote that the Tour has been preparing for this attempt to “disrupt” the Tour and that the players should be confident in the legal merits of the Tour’s position. 

“Fundamentally, these suspended players – who are now Saudi Golf League employees – have walked away from the TOUR and now want back in,” Monahan’s memo said. “With the Saudi Golf League on hiatus, they’re trying to use lawyers to force their way into competition alongside our members in good standing.”

LIV Golf had been readying to bring an antitrust challenge against the PGA Tour, even before it launched, arguing that the PGA Tour has monopoly power in the golf market and is using that power to try to exclude an upstart challenger, by trying to restrict or drive up the price of LIV’s access to players.

The complaint and application for a temporary restraining order were filed in ​​the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Ian Poulter, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak and Peter Uihlein round out the golfers putting their names to the suit, arguing that the PGA Tour is trying to hurt their careers.

“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 say.

Talor Gooch acknowledges the crowd during a LIV Golf event in Bedminster, N.J.



Photo:

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

LIV Golf and the extraordinary money behind it has plunged the sport into tumult and financial upheaval. LIV is offering $25 million in prize money at its tournaments—far more than is currently offered on the PGA Tour—and top pros appear to have been offered hundreds of millions of dollars as sign-up inducements alone. The PGA Tour has responded by upping its purses at select tournaments and creating alternate routes, including new proposed international events, but has said it cannot compete with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. 

The result has been a schism inside the sport that is upending the business unlike ever before. LIV is a richly funded startup. The PGA Tour has historical cache and billions of dollars in television deals—and now has to fend off an unprecedented challenge, on and off the golf course. 

In their motion for a temporary restraining order, Gooch, Swafford and Jones say they appealed to the PGA Tour to be allowed to play in the playoffs, and that under Tour rules they should be allowed to play in the playoffs while their appeals are heard. It adds that the Tour violated its own disciplinary process when it told the players this week they wouldn’t be permitted to play while the appeals are pending. 

“The purpose of this action is to strike down the PGA Tour’s anti-competitive rules and practices that prevent these independent-contractor golfers from playing when and where they choose,” that motion says. 

The LIV players’ lawyers also cite the Tour’s efforts with the European tour and the PGA Tour’s alleged efforts to coordinate with the major championships as evidence that the body is acting unlawfully to cut off the players’ access to the golf ecosystem.

The lawsuit also provides new details about Mickelson’s status on Tour, which had been the subject of significant intrigue after he ceased playing in the wake of controversial comments regarding Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights that were published earlier this year. The lawsuit says Mickelson was suspended by the PGA Tour back in March for allegedly recruiting players to play for LIV, among other reasons, and that his appeal was denied. When he applied for reinstatement in June, the suit says, the Tour denied it based on his participation in the first LIV event that month outside London. It said he was forbidden from applying for reinstatement until March 2023, which was extended until March 2024 after he played the second LIV event. 

The FedEx Cup Playoffs caps the PGA Tour’s season with a series of events that feature increasing hype—and increasingly small fields—culminating with the Tour Championship. The FedEx Cup is also a season-long event in which players accumulate points based on their play, and the top points-getters land lucrative payouts. The top finisher in the FedEx Cup, currently world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, is in line for an $18 million prize. 

The perks of playing in the playoffs are significant. The prizes and bonus money are large. Strong performances can qualify players for major championships. They are also some of the Tour’s highest-profile events that draw attention to the golfers and, along with that, big branding opportunities.  

Under the current rules, the top 125 players are invited to the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the St. Jude Championship that begins next week. Then 70 make the BMW Championship before a slim field of 30 competes for the Tour Championship. 

But the LIV Golf defections led to questions about how those fields would be managed when players in the top 125 included LIV defectors who had been suspended. To address the issue, the PGA Tour modified its protocols recently to allow players from outside the top-125 to move up and take the spots of the players who had departed. 

The lawsuit filed by the golfers means that the PGA Tour is now facing legal battles over its practices on multiple fronts. In addition to this lawsuit, the Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into whether the Tour has engaged in anticompetitive behavior, The Wall Street Journal first reported. 

The Tour, however, has already begun fighting back, commanding support on Capitol Hill from lawmakers in both parties suspicious of LIV’s Saudi backers. It has previously said that it expects to prevail in the Justice Department inquiry, noting that it faced a similar inquiry in the mid-1990s from the Federal Trade Commission and quashed that with striking political backing.

The PGA Tour is expected to respond to the LIV golfers’ pursuit of an injunction by arguing that the players do not face a real emergency; have known about the situation for some time; should not be rewarded for filing at the last minute; and that letting them in would mean other players lose out, according to people familiar with the Tour’s thinking. 

Monahan’s memo to players emphasized that point, saying that Gooch, Jones and Swafford had filed now “despite knowing they would be ineligible for tournament play as early as June.”

The Tour will also say that they don’t have the right to play the FedEx Cup under the rules that they had previously agreed to after violating those bylaws by playing for LIV. 

The lawsuit says Phil Mickelson was suspended by the PGA Tour back in March for allegedly recruiting players to play for LIV.



Photo:

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

On the antitrust arguments more broadly, it is likely to argue that LIV and its golfers are seeking to “free ride” on value created by the collective efforts of participants in the Tour and that the Tour does not have to cooperate with a competitor, the people said.

That argument was also previewed in Monahan’s memo, when he described LIV players’ desire to compete in PGA Tour events as “an attempt to use the TOUR platform to promote themselves and to freeride on your benefits and efforts.”

“To allow reentry into our events compromises the TOUR and the competition, to the detriment of our organization, our players, our partners and our fans.”

The PGA Tour could also argue that LIV is acting in a predatory fashion, seeking to harm the Tour to the detriment of all the players who don’t get big contracts with LIV, maybe with the ultimate goal of hobbling the Tour so that it could be taken over by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. 

This lawsuit is the first in the U.S. that has pitted the two sides against one another, but LIV players had previously secured a favorable outcome in Europe. 

A handful of players successfully won a stay on their suspensions from the Genesis Scottish Open, which is co-sanctioned by the PGA and European tours. Days before the event, a judge hearing the golfers’ complaint through a dispute resolution service said those bans should be temporarily enjoined.

Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com and Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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LIV Golf: Donald Trump tells golfers to join controversial tour and ‘take the money now’

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“All of those golfers that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday.

“If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were.”

His comments come as families of 9/11 victims urged him to cancel the tournament, citing LIV Golf’s Saudi backing, according to a letter sent to Trump Sunday.

The allegations of Saudi government complicity with the attacks on September 11, 2001, have long been the subject of dispute in Washington. Fifteen of the 19 al Qaeda terrorists who hijacked four planes were Saudi nationals, but the Saudi government has denied any involvement in the attacks.

The 9/11 Commission established by Congress said in 2004 that it had found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” al Qaeda.

Still, the victims’ families have pushed for further disclosures, and last year, the FBI released a document that details their work to investigate the alleged logistical support that a Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent in Los Angeles provided to at least two hijackers.

“The Saudi nation is largely responsible for the death of our loved ones and for the horrific attack on America. And you know it,” 9/11 Justice, which represents survivors and family members of the terrorist attacks, said in the letter.

Brett Eagleson is an advocate for the group and his father, John Bruce Eagleson, was among those who died during the World Trade Center attacks. Eagleson told CNN the decision to host the tournament is “unconscionable.”

In the letter, he says the decision has caused “deep pain and anger” among constituents, given Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks and material support of al Qaeda, as outlined by FBI reports.

“The FBI notes that much information has come to light since the 9/11 Commission published its report in 2004,” Eagleson writes in the letter, “and refers repeatedly to the existence of US-based Saudi ‘support networks’ for the 9/11 hijackers.”

In an email, Eagleson emphasized that the golf course where LIV is slated to play is “in the backyard of where 750 New Jersey residents were murdered.”

“The former President correctly speculated in 2016 that Saudi Arabia knocked down the towers and now the FBI has released the documents to prove him right,” Eagleson told CNN, “yet he is choosing money over America. So much for America First. A sad day.”

The group is requesting to have members visit the former president in the coming days to discuss their concerns and urge him to “cease further business with the regime that was complicit in the murder of our loved ones,” according to the letter.

LIV Golf released a statement responding to the letter Monday.

“As we have said all along, these families have our deepest sympathy. While some may not agree, we believe golf is a force for good around the world.”

CNN has reached out to representatives for Trump and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster for comment.

Notably, last year, the PGA Tour voted to terminate the agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster. The decision came after the violent attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Trump.

What is LIV Golf?

The tour has held two tournaments so far — in London and near Portland, Oregon. The circuit’s season-ending event is set for late October at Trump National Doral Miami in Florida.

In June, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced that all member golfers playing in the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series were suspended and would no longer be eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournaments.

The US Justice Department is investigating the PGA Tour over possible antitrust violations involving LIV Golf, the PGA Tour confirmed to CNN last week.

Several top golfers such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka have joined LIV, which is fronted by former world No. 1 Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) — a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

CNN’s Kevin Dotson contributed to this report.

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European tour bans LIV golfers from Scottish Open

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MUNICH — The European tour banned golfers who competed in the Saudi-backed breakaway LIV series from three upcoming tournaments, including the Scottish Open, on Friday and fined them $120,000.

The tour said any players who took part in the inaugural LIV event in England this month would be suspended from the Scottish Open, Barbasol Championship and Barracuda Championship, and fined 100,000 pounds ($123,000). All three of those events are co-sanctioned by the European tour and the PGA, which has suspended players who competed in LIV.

There could be “further sanctions” if the players continue to compete in LIV without authorization, the European tour said.

“Many members I have spoken to in recent weeks expressed the viewpoint that those who have chosen this route have not only disrespected them and our Tour, but also the meritocratic ecosystem of professional golf that has been the bedrock of our game for the past half a century and which will also be the foundation upon which we build the next 50 years,” European tour chief executive Keith Pelley said.

“Their actions are not fair to the majority of our membership and undermine the Tour, which is why we are taking the action we have announced today.”

The European tour’s announcement came while some players signed to LIV were playing in one of its own events. Some of the European tour’s best-known players were on course Friday at the BMW International Open, including major winners Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer. They all played the inaugural LIV event in England.

Brooks Koepka, who officially joined the LIV tour earlier this week, had previously been announced as part of the Scottish Open field.

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Sports

9/11 group thanks golfers for rejecting Saudis

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A group of nearly 2,500 survivors of family members killed or injured in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have written an open letter to PGA Tour members to thank them for remaining loyal to the tour and not joining the rival LIV Golf Invitational Series, which is being financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

In the letter, which was released Wednesday, the survivors described themselves as the spouses, children, parents and siblings of those who died and who were injured in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

“To those many of you who chose to remain loyal to the PGA Tour — and did not defect to the Saudi Arabia-bankrolled LIV Golf Series — we thank you and the sponsors who support you,” the letter read. “Thank you for standing up for decency. Thank you for standing up for the 9/11 Families. Thank you for resisting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to cleanse its reputation by buying off professional athletes.”

Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudis.

More than 20 PGA Tour players, including former major champions Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, have signed with LIV Golf and received signing bonuses between as much as $100 million to $200 million, according to published reports.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended 17 players who competed in the inaugural LIV Golf tournament outside London without a conflicting-event release. The first LIV Golf event in the United States is scheduled to start June 30 at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland, Oregon.

“We know that not all of you are millionaires, and that you compete to win tournaments, fame, and glory,” the letter continued. “We appreciate and applaud your spirit, drive, and talents, and believe that is all part of what makes competitive sports great.

“Some of your fellow PGA Tour members have traded their dreams of earned success for easy money — indeed, blood money — whether they need those funds or not. They include some of the richest in the field, who justify their roles in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to sportswash by simply, and astoundingly, looking the other way. They do so casually when asked the hard questions or are faced with the uncomfortable truth: That they are helping one of the world’s worst regimes paper over its crimes.”

Other 9/11 survivor groups have accused the players who defected to LIV Golf of being complicit in what they have termed Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing efforts.

“I think I speak for pretty much every American in that we feel the deepest of sympathy and the deepest of empathy for those that have lost loved ones, friends in 9/11,” Mickelson said before last week’s U.S. Open. “It affected all of us, and those that have been directly affected, I think I can’t emphasize enough how much empathy I have for them.”

Tuesday’s letter detailed other human rights violations, including the Saudi monarchy’s alleged involvement in the slaying of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. citizen.

“Unfortunately, Saudi terrorism didn’t end with 9/11,” the letter read. “The world saw that in 2018 with the cold-blooded murder of Jamal Khashoggi ordered by the Saudi Crown Prince himself. And we continue to see it in 2022, as the Saudi government has imprisoned scores of dissenters and journalists, hosted a public execution of 81 people, slaughtered and bombed Yemenis, and committed countless other crimes against women and minorities.”

Some of the players who have signed with LIV Golf lost longtime sponsors after defecting. KPMG, Workday and Amstel Light ended their deals with Mickelson. Callaway, his longtime equipment sponsor, paused its relationship with him. The Royal Bank of Canada halted its business relationships with Johnson and Graeme McDowell, and Rocket Mortgage ended its sponsorship of DeChambeau.

“To those of you who have chosen what is right over blood money from a corrupt, destructive sports entity and its Saudi backers, please continue to stand strong,” the letter read. “You inspire hope and conviction that our long journey to accountability and justice is in reach. We deeply value your integrity and your willingness to stand up for principle.

“We will Never Forget. Thank you for reminding all Americans and people of the world that we should never forget. Thank you for doing what is right.”

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Sports

LIV Golf: PGA Tour officially suspends golfers participating in inaugural event

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“As you know, players listed below did not receive the necessary conflicting event and media rights releases — or did not apply for releases at all — and their participation in the Saudi Golf League/LIV Golf event is in violation of our Tournament Regulations,” Monahan said in a memo.

“The same fate holds true for any other players who participate in future Saudi Golf League events in violation of our Regulations.”

Players who have resigned their memberships will be removed from the FedEx Cup points list when the RBC Canadian Open scores are posted on Sunday.

The 17 golfers listed, including past major winners Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia, will not be permitted to play in PGA Tour tournaments as a non-member via a sponsor exemption or any other eligibility category, the memo reiterated.

Mickelson, who previously held a lifetime eligibility to the PGA Tour, said on Wednesday he didn’t plan on quitting the Tour as he had earned the right to participate as he has “a lifetime membership which he has earned, and worked hard for.”

What’s next?

As far as what happens now for the PGA Tour, Monahan added in the statement: “You probably have more questions. What’s next? Can these players come back? Can they eventually play PGA TOUR Champions? Trust that we’re prepared to deal with those questions, and we’ll approach them in the same way we have this entire process: by being transparent and respecting the PGA TOUR regulations that you helped establish.

“These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons. But they can’t demand the same PGA TOUR membership benefits, considerations, opportunities and platform as you. That expectation disrespects you, our fans and our partners. You have made a different choice, which is to abide by the Tournament Regulations you agreed to when you accomplished the dream of earning a PGA TOUR card and — more importantly — to compete as part of the preeminent organization in the world of professional golf.”

What is the LIV Golf series?

The LIV Golf series is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) — a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the man who a US intelligence report named as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi’s murder.

The tour consists of eight events across the world, beginning in London on Thursday.

Fronted by former world No. 1 Greg Norman, the team-based series runs from June to October with the aim, it says, to “holistically improve the health of professional golf on a global scale to help unlock the sports’ (sic) untapped potential.”

Saudi Arabia’s PIF has pledged to award $250 million in total prize money. Each of the first seven events will have a total prize purse of $25 million, with $20 million split between individual players and the remaining $5 million shared between the top three teams at the end of each week.

Ahead of the first event in London, the 12 teams were announced, as well as their captain. On Tuesday, captains selected the rest of their teams in a draft format akin to the NFL and NBA drafts.

Unlike typical golfing events, London’s event is over three days not four, with the 48-man field beginning with a shotgun start — all at the same time — in the hopes of being a more engaging, action-packed style event.

Competing in a traditional stroke play format, the lowest score will be the winner.

What was LIV Golf’s response?

LIV Golf responded to the PGA Tour’s decision to suspend players on Thursday, saying: “Today’s announcement by the PGA Tour is vindictive and it deepens the divide between the Tour and its members. It’s troubling that the Tour, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing.

“This certainly is not the last word on this topic. The era of free agency is beginning as we are proud to have a full field of players joining us in London, and beyond.”

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Sports

2022 PGA Championship predictions, picks, favorites: One of these nine golfers will win at Southern Hills

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TULSA, Okla. — Every Wednesday before a major championship begins, a conundrum falls upon golf fans and analysts. After all the studying, analyzing and hand-wringing, it always feels like only about five golfers can win that week’s event. This isn’t true, of course, but it feels true, which makes it a pseudo-reality until the first round leaderboard starts to take shape.

There are a hundred reasons this begins to feel true, but most prominent among them is that it’s so difficult to envision, say, Russell Henley beating guys like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thoms in the primes of their careers at the 2022 PGA Championship. And yet, Henley led the 2021 U.S. Open after three rounds, so it certainly can happen. It just doesn’t feel like it on Wednesdays with time to go until tournaments officially start.

With that in mind, I’ve put together a pool of golfers from which it seems most likely the winner will come from at the PGA Championship this year. If Las Vegas gave you odds on this pool against the field, this group of nine would certainly be shorter odds than the other 147 golfers at Southern Hills combined. Be sure to check out Round 1 tee times so you know when your favorites will take the course and view the full PGA Championship TV schedule and coverage guide.

So, let’s take a look at the group and why the champion on Sunday will come from out of these nine players. Also, don’t miss our full slate of PGA Championship picks and expert predictions. Odds via Caesars Sportsbook

Who will win the PGA Championship, and which long shots will stun the golfing world? Visit SportsLine now to see the projected PGA Championship leaderboard, all from the model that’s nailed eight golf majors, including this year’s Masters.

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