PGA TOUR may face legal challenges for suspending LIV participants, attorneys say

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Now that the PGA TOUR has officially suspended seventeen players for agreeing to participate in an LIV Golf event, the TOUR could face "a major" anti-trust lawsuit, according to some lawyers who specialize in noncompete law.

"The PGA TOUR is really opening itself up to a major lawsuit with potential antitrust claims and also a situation where they can’t justify what they’re doing other than saying, ‘We don’t like competition,'" said John Lauro, a New York- and Florida-based attorney.

Jay Monahan, Commissioner of the PGA TOUR, speaks at a press conference during practice for THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 8, 2022, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

"And the courts are going to be very concerned about why the PGA TOUR is doing this," Lauro continued. "These issues are now being looked at very carefully from an antitrust perspective by the courts. The courts look very skeptically on any kind of restraint of trade, and that would be part of what the PGA TOUR is doing."

And if you take a look at the memo issued to members by the PGA TOUR, they certainly do sound nervous about the competition that LIV Golf presents.

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In it, PGA TOUR commissioner Jay Monahan accuses LIV participants of "turning their back on the PGA TOUR." He then gets a bit petty and nitpicks them for not filing the proper paperwork: "As you know, (the LIV) players… did not receive the necessary conflicting event and media rights releases – or did not apply for releases at all."

He also seems to judge the