Collusion.
Colluding with all the tours to not allow world ranking points
Just how much did the PGA Tour manipulate the sport’s labor market. How much pressure did they exert on the majors to keep LIV out (and then when Augusta decided ALL of golf needed their invited qualifiers in, the rest jumped in line—U.S.Open certainly can’t keep out those that qualify. The PGA is a different entity that the PGA Tour)
Collusion of exactly how much illegal pressure the PGA Tour put on sponsors & suppliers to NOT work with LIV and their try for a network and such. All of which is highly illegal and would have cost the PGA multi-millions (billions) in court when the truth under oath came out.
Reff straining to create the new "highly illegal" standard as opposed to the simply illegal standard.
None of the things listed are illegal.
First, no major kept any LIV players out. So, there is no damage that can be claimed.
"Collusion" means conspiring with others to cheat or deceive others. OWGR criteria are determined by committee that includes reps from the officially recognized tours. PGAT officials didn't change the OWGR criteria to keep LIV players out; the LIV tour chose not to conduct events that met the criteria. Further, to the extent anyone was damaged by the OWGR rankings, it was the LIV players, but they all dropped out of the lawsuit against the tour. So, there was no one who had "standing" to make the claim that the PGAT "conspired" to deprive a LIV player of ranking points. Also, as was stated in one of the decisions that LIV players lost, the LIV players knew that the move to LIV was going to cost them OWGR points before they made the jump.
The PGAT didn't deprive LIV of sponsors. LIV had the biggest sponsor in the World, the Saudi Investment Fund. That investment fund is bigger than all of the PGAT sponsors put together times ten. LIV didn't make any effort to find sponsors because they didn't need them. LIV found a network, CW, and nobody watched. So, how could LIV claim that the PGAT kept LIV from finding a network, when there was no reason for a network to televise exhibition golf.
The PGAT won every legal battle along the way, and there was no fear of losing in court to LIV. The PGAT did have to ramp up purses and dig into its rainy day fund to keep up with LIV, and the PGAT knew their cash would run out before LIV's would. Also, the Saudi's offered so much money that the PGAT now doesn't have to worry about sponsors or TV contracts for years. Money won. That is the beginning and end of the story.
www.pgatour.com
