The PGA Tour is being investigated over 'anti-competitive behaviour’ towards the LIV Golf Series by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Players’ agents have been contacted by the DOJ’s antitrust division in regard to the Tour’s actions against LIV.
The PGA Tour’s battle with the new Saudi-backed series has sent shockwaves around the world of golf, with a civil war breaking out within the sport. The LIV Series has looked to lure a number of the world’s best players to join their mega-money circuit.
And they have been successful, with the likes of Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson all choosing to leave the PGA Tour to sign up.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan had issued strong warnings to those debating to defect from the outset. As a result, he suspended all those who chose to make the Saudi switch from the PGA Tour in June.
Monahan’s actions seem to be well within the rights of the circuit’s player handbook, which states that ‘the tour’s policy board and the appeals committee have the authority to permanently ban a member from playing in a tour co-sponsored, approved or coordinated tournaments if the member violates its regulations'.
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These regulations prohibit playing members from competing at outside events when there is a PGA Tour approved or sponsored tournament taking place at the same time, which was the case at both the LIV Series’ opening events at Centurion and in Portland. Monahan and his team have seemingly always remained confident that they are entitled to punish those who have defected.
This is not the first occasion the PGA Tour has faced an anti-trust investigation after going through similar in the early 1990s. The Federal Trade Commission found via a four-year investigation that they had broken anti-trust laws, again surrounding the release of players to conflicting events elsewhere, which coincided with LIV Golf’s CEO Greg Norman and his idea to create the World Tour.
After four years, the tour was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing, and it seems they are confident of the same outcome this time around. A spokesperson for the American-based circuit told Golf Digest: “This was not unexpected. We went through this in 1994, and we are confident in a similar outcome."