PGA Tour hits back at LIV Golf lawsuit: "Fabricating an emergency"

The PGA Tour's legal team have filed a motion in response to the antitrust lawsuit filed last week by LIV Golf Invitational Series players Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and nine others. 

As first reported by Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard, the response contains some incredible allegations. 

Chief of which is that the trio of Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones, who have filed a temporary restraining order in a bid to compete at the forthcoming FedEex Cup Playoffs, have "fabricated an emergency" that "now requires immediate action." 

Hoggard reports that the lawsuit response was filed on Monday. The hearing for which Gooch, Swafford and Jones will find out if they can play in the postseason will take place on 9 August.

The first playoff event starts next Thursday at TPC Southwind for the FedEx St. Jude Championship. It has a prize purse of $15,000,000, with the winner taking home a check for $2,700,000.

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What does the response from the PGA Tour say?

An extract from the lawsuit reads: "The [temporary restraining order] plaintiffs have waited nearly two months to seek relief from the court, fabricating an 'emergency' they now maintain requires immediate action.

"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.

"TRO Plaintiffs now run into Court seeking a mandatory injunction to force their way into the Tour's season-ending FedExCup Playoffs, an action that would harm all Tour members that follow the rules.

"The antitrust laws do not allow Plaintiffs to have their cake and eat it too."

Elsewhere, it is noted that not every single LIV Golf player is attempting to play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. 

They point out that since 9 June players have known that participation in LIV Golf events would result in suspensions and fines. 

The response continued: "In a telling sign, several other LIV players, including four other plaintiffs in this case, recognize there is no emergency or irreparable harm; they too have ‘qualified’ to play in the FedExCup but have not asked the court for the extraordinary relief sought through this motion,” the response read.

Elliot Peters, the lead counsel for the Tour in this particular case, told Golf Channel: "The players' participation in the LIV league is in violation of the PGA Tour's [handbook]. 

"For enormous sums of cash supplied by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, plaintiffs willfully breached their agreements with the PGA Tour.

"The players' purported harm is entirely self-induced."

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