Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods face fresh legal headache
Attorney Larry Klayman has accused Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy of being 'too important' to be deposed after being handed a significant legal victory.
Larry Klayman has accused Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy of being 'too important' to answer questions under oath as the attorney was given a significant legal victory in his antitrust case against the PGA Tour.
Klayman, who represented Patrick Reed in his defamation case against members of the golf media, is also embroiled in a lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
The lawsuit, 'Klayman v. PGA Tour et al' was filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit for Palm Beach County last July.
The attorney has accused the Tour, European-based DP World Tour and other entities of restraining competition for the rival LIV Golf League.
"Using their superior market power, as set forth in the class action complaint, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, under the 'leadership' of Jay Monahan and Keith Pelley respectively, have set out to destroy the LIV Golf Tour," Klayman previously said.
As part of the case Klayman wants to ask Woods, 47, and McIlroy, 34, questions in a deposition.
In January, hall of famer Woods was accused of deliberately avoiding a subpoena notice in this case.
A civil process server, Katelyn Miller, previously stated she tried to serve the legal papers to the golfer on five occasions to his mansion in Florida.
"Based on my experience as a process server Mr. Woods appears to be intentionally evading service," she said.
McIlroy was served his subpoena notice on Christmas Eve whilst he was at home with his wife Erica Stoll and his daughter Poppy.
The Northern Irishman later explained this was why he ignored the aforementioned Reed on the driving range at the Dubai Desert Classic.
Reed responded by flicking a LIV-branded tee in the Ulsterman's direction as the story was blown out of proportion.
McIlroy later said he didn't know 'what world' Reed was living in as he explained he believed he had good reason to ignore the American.
On 3 November, the judge overseeing this antitrust case dismissed a second attempt by the defendants to have the case thrown out.
PGA Tour veteran Davis Love III is also involved in the litigation.
Klayman described the three golfers of attempting to 'skate' from discovery, adding: "Claiming that they were too important and famous, among other frivolous arguments, to be deposed."
In a statement, Klayman said: "I am pleased Judge Delgado has again denied the PGA Tour and its commissioner Jay Monahan's second frivolous motion to dismiss and that the damage claims will remain in the case, such that any discovery will now move forward."
He added:
Documents in this case were previously mistakenly made public. They were placed back under seal.
But the bombshell docs appeared to show how the PGA Tour sought to strengthen their ties with the DP World Tour as they tried to fight LIV.
The docs appeared to indicate the Tour found the European Tour Group an 'underinvested and borderline distressed asset'.
Despite that finding, the Tour still wanted to enhance their relationship to strengthen its position against the Saudi-backed rival league.
Other notable talking points included scripted remarks for the aforementioned Woods to say during a town hall meeting with PGA Tour players.
Woods was reportedly going to be told to tell players to do as he did and tell the Saudis to 'F off and mean it'.
The 47-year-old later took to X to state he had 'never seen' the documents.
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Ben joined GolfMagic as Content Executive in September 2021 just before the Ryder Cup and has contributed significantly to the growth of the site. Ben now assumes our Content Manager role, specialising in PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf content.
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