The war between the Saudi league and the PGA Tour moves to the courts

The FedEx Cup kicks off this Thursday at TPC Southwind in Memphis with the St. Jude Championship, the first of three PGA Tour Grand Finals tournaments. Until this year, it was the largest distribution of millions in the history of golf, the most precious loot. Winning the FedEX could mean a bonus, apart from the prizes, of 18 million dollars. But the irruption of LIV Golf, the league sponsored by the millions of Saudi Arabiahas distorted everything, blowing absolutely unimaginable amounts into the world of golf and starting a war that promises to be long.

After some initial tentative battles between the two sides, on the one hand the LIV and on the other the traditional circuits with the American PGA Tour in the lead, the war has reached the only place where a winner can be elucidated: the courts. That does not mean that the armistice is near. Not much less. But it will be the judges who will end up deciding how all this mess ends. Nobody doubts that.

A California judge denied three FedEX-qualified LIV players from participating in Memphis

At the moment, the first point must be noted down for the PGA Tour after just one day before the start of the St. Jude Beth Freeman, a judge from Northern California, denied the precautionary measures requested by three LIV Golf players: Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones. The three had been expelled from the PGA Tour due to their affiliation with the Saudi league, but until that moment they had accumulated enough FedEx points to play in the Memphis tournament, so they claimed their right to participate in court, accusing the North American circuit of causing them “a irreparable economic damage”, a request that has finally been denied. The three had well-founded hopes of being able to play the FedEx after just a few weeks ago, a British court ruled in favor of three other LIV players (Ian Poulter, Adrián Otaegui and Justin Harding) and forced the DP World Tour to allow them to play the Scottish Open.

But the current judicial front goes much further. Gooch, Swafford and Jones’ request for precautionary measures was part of a much more elaborate lawsuit with eight other golfers (a total of 11) against the PGA Tour for monopoly, in which they requested their re-entry into the North American circuit and the power to play their tournaments as before. With this demand the real war began as it has been signed by players of the stature of Phil Mickelson or Bryson DeChambeau, plus the other signatories: Ian Poulter, Abraham Ancer, Pat Pérez, Jason Kokrak, Peter Uihlein and Carlos Ortiz, who finally backtracked.

Eleven LIV golfers have sued the PGA Tour for a monopoly to be able to play their tournaments

Jay Monahan, commissioner of the PGA Tour, informed all golfers on the circuit of the lawsuit in a very harsh note in which he reiterated his willingness to fight LIV Golf to the end, defending their interests. In the letter, Monahan also asked his affiliates to offer his opinion publicly whenever they had the opportunity. Something that has not taken long to happen and has shown the schism that is also being created among the professionals themselves.

“There are players who have made the decision to go to another circuit breaking the rules of ours and now they are suing us, it is definitely a bit frustrating,” admitted without wanting to make too much blood Scottie Scheffler, world number, in Memphis. Less politically correct had been Billy Horschel, a former FedEx Cup champion. “Those guys made their bet so leave us alone. It frustrates me a lot because many are hypocrites, they don’t tell the truth and they lie about some things. I can no longer be a diplomat, ”he settled. War is a fact.