‘You know the consequences!’ PGA Tour responds to LIV rebels as court case looms
It didn’t take long – and indeed it couldn’t – but after 11 LIV rebels filed a lawsuit against the PGA Tour over their indefinite suspensions, the American circuit has fired back with a blazing attack of their own, accusing the suspended members of “fabricating an emergency” as the first court case looms.
In a fiery 32-page motion filed to the Federal Court, the Tour attacked three LIV golfers – Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones – for “mischaracterisations, half-truths, and falsehoods” with the trio seeking a temporary restraining order to play in the Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, which tee off later this week.
A hearing over their participation is scheduled for Tuesday in California, and it looks like the PGA Tour will be doing everything they can to keep LIV’s rebels suspended from the lucrative season finale.
An extract from the motion reads the following: “Despite knowing full well that they would breach Tour Regulations and be suspended for doing so, Plaintiffs have joined competing golf league LIV Golf, which has paid them tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed money supplied by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to procure their breaches.
“The Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) Plaintiffs have waited nearly two months to seek relief from the Court, fabricating an “emergency” they now maintain requires immediate action.
“Unable to establish their claims based on any fair interpretation of admissible evidence, TRO Plaintiffs have resorted to mischaracterising the record. The mischaracterisations, half-truths, and falsehoods are so numerous in Plaintiffs’ brief that the Tour couldn’t respond to all of them and instead had to create a separate chart identifying an exemplary set.
“Why would a judge be convinced that these players were harmed after they were made aware of the rules and consequences, knowingly broke those rules, and now seek judicial permission to continue to break those rules? And with players making eye-popping guaranteed amounts of money, where is the demonstrated harm?”
The FedEx Cup Playoffs begin on Thursday with the St Jude Championship in Memphis, with 122 players currently listed in the field. This could grow to 125 bearing the outcome of the impending court case.
Watch this space.
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George Cooper
A golf fanatic his entire life, George Cooper is NCG's man for all goings-on at the top level of the game, whether it's the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LPGA or LIV Golf. He also looks after NCG's Twitter and Facebook accounts. George is a member of Woburn, but is not friends with Ian Poulter.
