PGA Tour’s Fight With LIV Golf Reaches Justice Department
The Justice Department is investigating the PGA Tour for anticompetitive behavior in its dealings with the breakaway LIV Golf series.The conflict upending men’s professional golf spread to a new setting with the Justice Department investigating the PGA Tour for anticompetitive behavior in its dealings with the breakaway LIV Golf series, a tour spokeswoman confirmed Monday.The PGA Tour has suspended players who have defied tour regulations and participated in two recent LIV Golf events without the PGA Tour’s permission. Greg Norman, the chief executive of LIV Golf, whose major shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, has castigated the tour’s stance as an “illegal monopoly.”Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, has repeatedly countered that his organization’s policies will stand up to legal review, including if a lawsuit is filed by a suspended PGA Tour member, which is expected. The PGA Tour has pointed to a 1994 federal probe examining comparable disciplinary measures by the tour against golfers playing in a non-PGA Tour event without the commissioner’s permission. The tour received no federal sanctions at that time.“We went through this in 1994 and we are confident in a similar outcome,” Laura Neal, a PGA Tour executive vice president, wrote in an email Monday. Of the Justice Department inquiry, Neal said: “This was not unexpected.”A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment, citing the longstanding policy of neither confirming nor denying reports of continuing investigations.A Quick Guide to the LIV Golf SeriesCard 1 of 5A new series. More
