In LIV Golf’s battle with the PGA Tour, Greg Norman and co were dealt a significant setback.
With the start of the new season of the controversial Saudi-backed circuit on the horizon, a federal judge dealt a blow to the group that financially supports the upstart league, which could significantly change the fledgling circuit’s anti-trust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. LIV’s attorneys endeavour to highlight the team’s organisational structure and finances, but the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is not so forthcoming.
In order to avoid a deep dive of their own financial dealings, they attempted to claim “sovereign immunity” during a November filing last November. But the PIF and its governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan may be left with no choice to do so after a federal judge ruled on Thursday they must provide the same information.
The original suit, which was filed by Phil Mickelson and 10 other golfers last August, was taken over by LIV Golf, which falls under the PIF umbrella. A redacted copy of the order was included in a filing released late Thursday stating that the PIF and LIV are too intertwined to separate them for legal purposes.
“The Court DENIES the motion of PIF to quash the subpoena directed to PIF on the grounds of sovereign immunity because it finds that PIF’s conduct falls within the commercial activity exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act,” the order says. “It is plain that PIF is not a mere investor in LIV; it is the moving force behind the founding, funding, oversight and operation of LIV.
“PIF’s actions are indisputably the type of actions by which a private party engages in trade and traffic or commerce.” LIV Golf attorneys have already filed an appeal to Thursday’s ruling. There does not seem to be an end in sight to the bitter dispute between the two golf circuits.
LIV claimed the PGA have used their status to illegally suspend players, but on the other hand the PGA claimed LIV is using players “and the game of golf to sportswash the recent history of Saudi atrocities and to further the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s Vision 2030 initiatives.”
“This isn’t what a government does. This is what somebody that is running a golf league does, LIV is pretty much a shell and the financial consequences, be they good or bad of the investment, flow through to PIF,” Tour lawyer Elliot Peters said during a January hearing.
The PGA’s lawyers highlighted an example of Al-Rumayyan and the PIF becoming heavily involved by claiming they reached out to a TV executive in an attempt to secure a media agreement.
