NEW YORK - LIV Golf has insisted that it is "confident" regarding its legal battle with the US PGA Tour, which filed a countersuit against the Saudi-backed circuit on Wednesday, claiming that LIV interfered with contracts the Tour had with its players.
In its counterclaim, the US PGA Tour, which LIV is suing for antitrust violations, said the upstart series had "falsely informed" its players that they could break their contracts with the Tour "for the benefit of LIV and to the detriment of all Tour members".
"Indeed, a key component of LIV's strategy has been to intentionally induce Tour members to breach their Tour agreements and play in LIV events while seeking to maintain their Tour memberships and play in marquee Tour events like The Players Championship and the FedExCup play-offs, so LIV can free ride off the Tour and its platform," said the PGA Tour.
The countersuit also said that LIV offered "astronomical sums of money to induce them to breach their contracts with the US PGA Tour in an effort to use the LIV players and the game of golf to sportswash the recent history of Saudi atrocities".
The US PGA Tour, which declined to comment on Thursday, asked for a trial by jury, which was set for January 2024. The Tour also seeks damages for any lost profits, "damages to reputational and brand harm" and other legal costs.
But in a statement on the same day, LIV said the Tour "made these counterclaims in a transparent effort to divert attention from their anti-competitive conduct, which LIV and the players detail in their 104-page complaint".
"We remain confident that the courts and the justice system will right these wrongs," it said.
The countersuit is the latest turn in an antagonistic battle between the Tour and LIV, which has lured away a number of players with staggering sums of money.
These players, including several Major winners, have been banned indefinitely by the US PGA Tour.
In its countersuit, the Tour also claimed that while LIV said the Tour's rules violated antitrust laws, LIV had signed players to contracts with obligations "that are far more restrictive" than what the Tour's rules dictated, "including a prohibition on participation in conflicting events" that, unlike the Tour, does not allow for any request for release.
"Yet LIV told players that the Tour's behaviour was anticompetitive," it added.
LIV's suit was initially brought by 11 former US PGA Tour players, and LIV joined in late August. Four of the players had already removed themselves from the suit, and Tuesday, four more players - Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch, Ian Poulter and Hudson Swafford - withdrew.
The three golfers who remain in the suit are Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Jones and Peter Uihlein.
Separately, Davis Riley and Will Gordon took a one-shot lead after the first round of the US PGA Tour's Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi on Thursday.
World No. 69 Riley, who was born and raised in Mississippi, fired a bogey-free six-under 66, while the 224th-ranked Gordon made seven birdies and one bogey as he moved to the top of the leaderboard at the Country Club of Jackson.
Gordon and Riley, who have yet to win on the PGA Tour, are one ahead of seven players tied for third on five under. NYTIMES, REUTERS, AFP
