LIV Golf News

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LIV's Lee Westwood hopes PGA players 'choke on their words'​

LIV Golf Series' Lee Westwood peered at the changes presented by the PGA Tour for 2023 and they felt a little too familiar.

Westwood, early to onboard with the competitor to the PGA, said he is amused by the spin from his former peers.

"I laugh at what the PGA Tour is doing," he said in a Golf Digest interview. "It's just a copy of what LIV is doing. There are a lot of hypocrites out there. They all say LIV is not competitive. They all point at the no-cut aspect of LIV and the short fields."

Commissioner Jay Monahan suspended Westwood and other PGA defectors who've joined LIV Golf and this week announced changes. They include larger purses and a commitment from the top 20 players on the PGA Tour to participate in at least 20 events, including 13 with "elevated" status and more money on the line for players.

Westwood, also a former member of the DP World Tour in Europe, said the PGA Tour is doing to the DP events what the LIV intends to do to the PGA.

"All the PGA Tour has done since Tiger (Woods) came on tour is up the prize purses," Westwood said. "In turn, that has taken all the best players from Europe away from the European Tour. They've had to play in the States, taking all their world ranking points with them. That was their strategy: 'Put up the money. Get all the players. Hog all the world ranking points.' Which becomes self-perpetuating. What we have seen over the last few months is just LIV doing what the PGA Tour has done for the last 25 years."

LIV events are 54 holes and there is no cut line based on the smaller field of players.

Westwood said he understands the PGA proposal includes events that copy the LIV format. The PGA Tour plays most of its events as a 72-hole tournament with cuts after 36 holes.

"Funnily enough, they are proposing 20 events that look a lot like LIV," Westwood said. "Hopefully, at some point they will all choke on their words. And hopefully, they will be held to account as we were in the early days."

 

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LIV Golf joins antitrust lawsuit against PGA Tour​

The Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series has joined the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in an amended complaint in which four golfers originally listed on the original lawsuit have withdrawn their names.

Carlos Ortiz, Abraham Ancer, Pat Perez and Jason Kokrak withdrew their names, leaving just seven golfers including six-time major champion Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau along with LIV Golf as the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Earlier this month, 11 golfers participating in the LIV Golf series filed an antitrust lawsuit to challenge their suspensions by the PGA Tour.

Three golfers still listed on the lawsuit – Matt Jones, Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford – had their request for a temporary restraining order to play in the FedEx Cup playoffs denied by a judge earlier in August.

The amended complaint was filed on Friday in the US District Court in Northern California.

According to the amended complaint, LIV Golf is seeking “punitive damages against the PGA Tour for its tortious interference with LIV Golf’s prospective business relationships.”

PGA Tour said they were “aware” of the amended complaint but had no comment. CNN has reached out to LIV Golf but did not immediately hear back.

The LIV Golf series is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the man who a US intelligence report named as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi’s murder.

According to the PGA Tour, any golfer that joined LIV Golf was ruled ineligible to participate in tournament play since early June.

LIV Golf’s next three-day event is scheduled to begin September 2 in Boston.