PGA Tour Files New Lawsuit Against LIV Golf's Financial Backers
Editors’ note, Oct. 21 at 10:10 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to reflect additional reporting.
The PGA Tour fired another salvo in the war against LIV Golf on Friday, filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, but this time the intended target was not LIV Golf, but the Public Investment Fund, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Saudi Arabia and Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the fund reportedly worth more than $500 billion.
The motion filed by the Tour was under seal, meaning access to the initial filing and its 107 exhibits are not available to the public.
Sources who have access to the filing to Sports Illustrated that the Tour is attempting to compel both the PIF and Al-Rumayyan to answer discovery questions provided by the Tour in its antitrust suit against LIV Golf that was filed in the Federal Court in Northern District of California on Aug. 3.
Both the PIF and Al-Rumayyan are unwilling to answer any of the discovery questions posed to them by the Tour, asserting they are not required to.
Sources said that the Tour took the step of filing its lawsuit in New York because PIF has an office there and Al-Rumayyan does business in the city as well, eliminating any venue issues moving forward.
Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the courts “may consolidate any or all matters in the case for hearing or trial: consolidate the actions entirely for all purposes; or issue any other order to avoid unnecessary cost or delay.”
That means it’s extremely likely this issue will one day fall under the federal court in Northern California, where the case of LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour currently resides.
Oddly, just last week, the Tour was in Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen’s courtroom on a discovery issue brought by LIV Golf to force the PGA Tour to answer LIV’s “Interrogatory No. 1,” which specifically requested information about who was authorized to communicate for the Tour on any discussions about any new tour.
An interrogatory is usually part of the early stages of discovery. It’s composed of written questions from one side and answered in writing by the other side of the dispute.
In Interrogatory No. 1, LIV Golf is seeking those people within the Tour that may have represented the Tour. LIV would then know to whom it may send an interrogatory or maybe even depose in a deposition.
Here’s a closer look at Interrogatory No. 1
SI reviewed the court documents. Here’s how Interrogatory No. 1 reads:
Identify each individual who communicated on behalf of the PGA Tour with any other person (including Tour Members) or entity regarding any New Tour. Your response should include individuals who communicated with (a) the European Tour, (b) Augusta National, (c) PGA of America, (d) USGA, (e) OWGR, (f) Royal & Ancient, (g) Asian Tour, (h) Japan Tour, (i) Sunshine Tour, (j) Ladies Professional Golf Association, (k) Ladies European Tour, (l) any broadcaster, (m) any vendor or service provider to the PGA Tour, (n) any advertiser or sponsor, (o) any player agent or representative, (p) any golfer (including PGA Tour Members), or (q) any other person or entity not expressly excluded by this Interrogatory. Your response need not include communications with the PGA Tour’s counsel or the press. For each individual you identify, identify the date(s) of the communication(s), the medium of the communication(s) (e.g., in-person, phone, text, email, etc.), and the other person or entity to whom the communication was made.
LIV Golf believed the Tour’s response did not fully answer the question. After the hearing, van Keulen agreed while entering an order in favor of LIV’s discovery claim on Oct. 14. This required the Tour to fully answer the question of Interrogatory No. 1 by noon PT on Oct. 19.
van Keulen also ordered the parties to look at the subject matter of the request and broadened the request in Interrogatory No. 1, with the following excerpt from her order of Oct. 14:
The subject matter of responsive communications will be subject to further meet and confer between the Parties in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Court at the hearing. In sum, the subject matter will be broader than “LIV, PGL and Saudi Golf League” but not as broad as the “New Tour” definition in Interrogatory no. 1.
On Oct. 19, van Keulen further ordered that the Tour would have until 5 p.m. PT on Oct. 20 to comply with responses to Interrogatory No. 1 regarding sponsors, vendors and broadcasters.
The issue of Interrogatory No. 1 is still in question, with both sides filing paperwork with the court.
van Keulen has set an in-person discovery hearing—rather than a typical Zoom call—for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 24 in her San Jose courtroom to hash out the issue.
No date has been set for a hearing on the lawsuit filed on Friday in New York.