A Florida court has ordered both Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy be deposed in the next couple of months as part of a civil lawsuit against the PGA Tour launched by lawyer Larry Klayman.
A press release from Klayman's 'Freedom Watch' organisation stated that the "15th Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County ordered the depositions of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to proceed on January 30 and February 23, 2024 respectively."
Klayman, who acted as Patrick Reed's lawyer when he threatened to sue CNN for $450m, wanted to depose Woods and McIlroy in January 2023, but neither player has as yet been spoken to.
“Woods and McIlroy are not above the law and their frivolous and now failed multiple attempts to avoid being deposed creates more than a presumption of liability for their efforts to harm LIV Golf and its players," Klayman said in a statement after the new deposition dates were set.
The statement from Freedom Watch claims that: "The testimony and the full production of documents ordered by the court in Palm Beach of both Woods and McIlroy will be most revealing, as both were heavily involved in attempts by the PGA Tour to maintain its monopolistic hold over professional golf, as members of the PGA Tour Players Advisory Council.
"And both professional golfers assisted Commissioner Monahan in defaming and disparaging LIV Golf and its players after the new league came into existence, all of which were intended to scare sponsors and television rights contracts away from LIV Golf and its players, to restrain its entry into the professional golf tour market."
The statement continued: "As just the latest example of the anticompetitive acts and unfair trade practices of the PGA Tour and Monahan, after what most golf fans believe to be the number one professional golfer and independent contractor, Jon Rahm, recently decided to also play professional golf on the LIV Tour, he was immediately suspended from playing on the PGA Tour and is now likely to also be suspended and fined by its joint venture partner the DP World Tour, aka the European Tour."
Attorney Larry Klayman launched an antitrust suit against the PGA Tour over a year ago for “an anticompetitive scheme to restrain trade though monopolization, attempted monopolization, group boycotts and other antitrust violations to destroy the new LIV Golf Tour and its players to the detriment of golf fans in Florida.”
