LIV Golf joins antitrust lawsuit against PGA Tour

SAN JOSE — Saudi-funded LIV Golf has joined the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in an amended complaint in which four players have removed their names.

That leaves seven players, most notably Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, along with LIV Golf as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The four who withdrew their names are Carlos Ortiz, Abraham Ancer, Pat Perez and Jason Kokrak.

The amended complaint was filed Friday afternoon in the U.S. District Court in Northern California. Three players still on the lawsuit — Matt Jones, Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford — previously sought a temporary restraining order to played in the FedEx Cup playoffs.

The judge denied their request two weeks ago.

The lawsuit claims the PGA Tour has used monopoly power to try to squash competition and has unfairly suspended players.

Greg Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf, has said the league would fully support the players in any legal action they pursued. LIV Golf, backed by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, now is directly involved.

In the amended complaint, LIV Golf argues that without a favorable ruling, its «ability to maintain a meaningful competitive presence in the markets will be destroyed.»

LIV Golf alleges the PGA Tour's restraints forced it to raise its costs to sign players and kept it from recruiting others who fear the threat of being punished. It also claims the tour forced LIV Golf to delay its launch for 2022 and have a smaller schedule in its first year.

LIV Golf has offered several big names signing fees that are reported to be worth $150 million or more, in addition to the $25 million in prize money at each event. LIV Golf has staged three tournaments so far. The fourth is next weekend outside Boston.

The amended complaint