One of the 11 LIV Golf players who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour last week has withdrawn from it.
Carlos Ortiz, along with Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch, Matt Jones, Jason Kokrak, Pat Perez, Ian Poulter, Hudson Swafford and Peter Uihlein, filed the lawsuit challenging their suspension from the PGA Tour following their decisions to play in the LIV Golf Invitational Series.
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However, per the Associated Press, according to the Mexican’s manager, the 31-year-old “does not want to be involved in any legal battles. He is thankful for the opportunity he had to play on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour the last few years”. The Golf Channel later reported that Ortiz’s manager had explained that the player has decided to “move on”. Despite the decision, Ortiz’s name is still listed as one of the 11 plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
During a hearing in San Jose on Tuesday, where District Judge Beth Labson Freeman ruled against three of the players teeing it up in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, it was announced that that hearings for the rest of the antitrust case will start at the end of next month prior to a summary judgement in March 2023. The full trial is expected to begin next August.
Ortiz was initially suspended by the PGA Tour at the end of June after teeing it up in the second Series event in Portland, Oregon. However, he is one of several players who’ve joined the Saudi-backed Series that have not resigned their PGA Tour membership, suggesting he had hoped his exclusion from it was temporary, despite the Tour’s hardline stance against any of its members defecting to the Series.
The PGA Tour responded to the lawsuit by dismissing it as “legally baseless”. Attorneys for the Tour also argued that the players couldn’t “have their cake and eat it too.”
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