Report: LIV Golf facing fresh $50m legal headache
LIV Golf are reportedly in a secret legal dispute with the Premier Golf League, according to a report by The Times of London.
LIV Golf are reportedly in a secret legal dispute with their predecessor, according to a report.
Per The Times of London, the breakaway tour are embroiled in a disagreement with the Premier Golf League.
It is understood officials from the PGL have instructed lawyers but so far no action has been filed in the courts.
Nor have there been any attempts made to settle the matter through a private arbitration.
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PGL reportedly want compensation of up to $50m. The dispute is said to be over intellectual property rights.
LIV emerged in 2022 with a series of shotgun style, 54-hole events with astronomical prize purses of $25m.
When it launched there were 12 teams of four but this has since changed to 13 to accommodate their marquee signing Jon Rahm.
Multiple major champions such as Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson were among the first wave of players to sign up.
They are being compensated handsomely by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls the entire operation.
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Rahm became the league's highest-profile signing to date when he joined LIV last December for a figure said to be in the region of $500m.
The PGL touted a similar idea to LIV as far back as 2019 but the concept was shot down by a number of leading players.
It mirrored Greg Norman's attempts to establish a global golf tour back in the 1990s. It is widely assumed Norman is still bitter about being rejected.
When the original PGL idea was floated, it also had the backing of the aforementioned Saudi PIF.
An elite, global tour was proposed with as many as 18 events per year. The PGL also intended to place an emphasis on teams.
In February 2020, Rory McIlroy declared of PGL's idea: "I don't like what they're proposing.
"The more I've thought about it, the more I don't like it. For me, I'm out. I don't like what their proposing."
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The UK-based PGL is spearheaded by Andrew Gardiner, a British former corporate finance lawyer.
Gardiner addressed the similarities between the PGL and LIV in an interview with Today's Golfer in June 2022.
Asked if he was angry or jealous, he told the publication: "I'm not angry at all. We see [LIV] as a testament to us because it is, for all intent and purposes, the same format that we devised."
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Ben joined the GolfMagic team in September 2021, initially as a content executive.
These days, he assumes the position of content manager.
