LIV Golf Denied Ranking Points as Lawsuit Claims Come to Life
In a move with ramifications for the ongoing antitrust litigation between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, the Official World Golf Ranking announced on Thursday it will not award points to upcoming LIV events. The move comes on the heels of the Dubai-based Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Tour requesting its LIV-affiliated events over the next couple of weeks be OWGR-point eligible.
OWGR, which recognized the MENA Tour in 2016, explained its decision on procedural and timing grounds. It stressed “insufficient” notice and the need for OWGR to follow its ordinary course of review. According to OWGR’s timeline, MENA contacted OWGR on Wednesday, the same day MENA publicized a “strategic alliance” with the Saudi-backed LIV. The alliance begins play in Thailand on Friday, with LIV Golf’s event at the Stonehill Golf Course near Bangkok.
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OWGR rankings are repeatedly mentioned in the 118-page amended complaint on behalf of LIV and a group of golfers that started with Phil Mickelson and 10 others but now has just three—Matt Jones, Bryson DeChambeau and Peter Uihlein. LIV attorneys contend the exclusion of LIV events from point-eligible play demonstrates injury to both LIV and its golfers.
In claiming the PGA Tour “has leaned on OWGR” to cast doubt on LIV events’ point eligibility, LIV’s complaint argues “this conduct serves no beneficial purpose, but rather serves to harm the careers of the players (including Player Plaintiffs) who play in LIV Golf events, and to deter other players from joining LIV Golf to avoid career destruction at the hands of the Tour.”
LIV also asserts the PGA Tour exerts considerable influence over OWGR and has pushed it to further alleged antitrust violations. LIV notes that “OWGR’s Governing Board includes PGA Tour Commissioner [Jay] Monahan” and insists the PGA Tour “has leaned on the other world golfing bodies that have representatives on the OWGR Governing Board to do its bidding to heighten threats for associating with LIV Golf.”
To that point, LIV claims the PGA Tour “enlisted Tiger Woods to do its bidding and publicly criticize golfers—particularly younger golfers—for joining LIV Golf by suggesting they would never play in The Masters, The Open, or other Majors and would not earn OWGR points.” In July, Woods warned that players who join LIV might “never, ever get a chance to play in a major championship, never get a chance to experience this right here, walk down the fairways at Augusta National. . . especially if the LIV organization doesn’t get world-ranking points and the major championship change their criteria for entering the events.”
LIV attorneys can portray OWRG’s denial of MENA as evidence of the PGA Tour’s supposed conspiracy to impair LIV’s chances for becoming a genuine rival.
But the argument might not have much sway.
In August, Judge Beth Lisbon Freeman was unpersuaded that the PGA Tour deeming LIV golfers ineligible constituted the type of harm courts should address. She emphasized how LIV golfers assert LIV is superior to the PGA Tour, including in regard to potential earnings and play flexibility. Even without OWGR points, she stressed that LIV golfers aren’t “barred from playing professional golf against the world’s top players, from earning lucrative prizes in some of golf’s highest-profile events, from earning sponsorships, or from building a reputation, brand, and fan following in elite golf.”
The case is currently scheduled for a jury trial set to begin on Jan. 8, 2024.
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