The PGA Tour have failed to get LIV ’s lawsuit against them overturned, which has been described as a “major victory” for Greg Norman and co, according to reports. Last month a lawsuit was filed in Florida alleging that the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, and the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) had come together to try and vanquish LIV.
US Senate candidate, attorney Larry Klayman claimed Jay Monohan, the PGA Tour commissioner, and DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley have broken laws in an attempt to restrain trade. After the PGA had their motion to overturn the lawsuit dismissed, the delighted 71-year-old described the result as a wonderful moment for LIV.
“This is the first time that the PGA Tour and Monahan have ‘taken it on the chin” and lost a motion to dismiss an antitrust complaint filed against them,” he said via a statement released by Freedom Watch. “What is significant is that this case will now proceed to discovery, and for the first time, the PGA Tour and its commissioner will be held accountable for anticompetitive conduct.
"The whole truth will now be exposed for all to see and hear. The Court’s ruling is thus a major victory for golf fans, and by extension LIV Golf, whose players have been defamed and trashed by the defendants with their captive purveyors of fake news in the golf media, such as NBC’s Golf Channel, the PGA Tour’s admitted incestuous partner. Let justice ring!”
The lawsuit also alleges the tours attempted to end LIV Golf with the organisation still in its early stages. It also reads that PGA Tour consumers “have seen the quality of the product that they are paying for at PGA Tour events be diluted and destroyed by a deterioration of the talent level at PGA Tour events due to the exclusion of many of the top players in the world who have signed to LIV Golf.”
The lawsuit also mentions a 34% rise in ticket prices for the 2023 Players Championship, claiming "some packages for the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida are at least ten percent higher in 2023 than in 2022”, describing the increases as “supracompetitve prices”.
Explaining his motivation for filing the lawsuit, Klayman, who is also representing golfer Patrick Reed in two lawsuits against various media figures, said: “Consumers, that is Florida golf fans including me, have as much right as anyone to benefit from a free market, which would allow all golf leagues and independent contractor players to fairly compete.
“But the defendants have illegally worked hard to prevent this, as the PGA Tour and its co-conspirator defendants will not tolerate honest and fair competition, as it will challenge their trillion dollar plus monopoly to totally dominate the golf world.”
