The PGA Tour has countersued LIV Golf in the latest court battle between the two organisations as they both struggle over the future of the sport.
The PGA Tour has fired back at the Greg Norman-fronted series, suggesting that by offering millions of dollars as a method of luring competitors away, LIV is competing in an unfair manner.
Cameron Smith recently signed for a fee reported to be north of $100m following his Open Championship victory and this represented another blow to the PGA Tour that has lost stars including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and others to LIV this year.
The PGA Tour was responding to the antitrust complaint that was filed nearly two months ago by 11 golfers; Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak and Peter Uihlein, although now only three remain.
DeChambeau, Jones and Uihlein have been joined by LIV Golf itself – which wasn’t in the original legal battle but has now stepped in to lead the fight against the US-based circuit.
On Wednesday evening, the PGA Tour denied the claim that it had accused LIV of interfering with the Tour’s contracts with golfers who had jumped ship to its rival, while adding a countersuit charge per The Athletic:
“Indeed, a key component of LIV’s strategy has been to intentionally induce TOUR members to breach their TOUR agreements and play in LIV events while seeking to maintain their TOUR memberships and play in marquee TOUR events like The Players Championship and the FedEx Cup Playoffs, so LIV can free ride off the TOUR and its platform.
“LIV has openly sought to damage the TOUR’s business relationships with its members by inducing them to breach their contractual requirements, even going so far as to pay members’ legal fees to make breaching their contracts with TOUR more enticing.”
“LIV’s orchestrated efforts to induce tour members to breach their contracts and prevent them from entering into any future contract with the tour are part of a deliberate effort to harm the…
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