The tee shot heard ’round the golf world – Patrick Reed’s passive-aggressive flip of a LIV-logoed tee in Rory McIlroy’s direction last week on the practice range in Dubai after the world No. 1 gave Reed the silent treatment – created an embarrassing eruption of attention that it didn’t warrant, but that’s the world in which we live.
Had only Prince Harry walked by, hawking his book, and it might have brought social media to its melting point.
To think we were that close to solving one of the world’s problems.
While the Reed-McIlroy moment was trivial in one sense, it serves as a reminder of where the professional golf world finds itself these days: divided by golf’s version of the River Styx.
Reed may have been approaching McIlroy to tell him that the subpoena served on the PGA Tour’s most popular player on Christmas Eve was part of Reed’s lawyer’s suit against the PGA Tour, not one of the many legal filings Reed has made to right the perceived wrongs against him, but it doesn’t matter.
This is not a time of olive branches and white doves.
That point was driven home last week when the PGA Tour filed a claim in federal district court in California seeking to add Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and its fund governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, as defendants in the lawsuit filed last year by the new golf league.
It’s the PGA Tour playing offense in the judicial system. ... it’s another indication that the tour likes where it finds itself from a legal perspective.
It’s a big deal because the tour is asking – demanding, if the judge agrees – that the man who operates the Saudi wealth fund worth a reported $600 billion answer questions about his role and the fund’s role in LIV Golf, which started this whole thing by filing suit against the tour, alleging antitrust violations among other things.
Greg Norman, the public face and force behind LIV Golf, said recently on Fox News that the organization is funded entirely by the Saudi government’s largesse, which suggests that any lawsuit should require Al-Rumayyan and/or other officials associated with the Public Investment Fund to sit for questioning.
It’s the PGA Tour playing offense in the judicial system. There won’t be a resolution any time soon – a decision is likely months, not days or weeks, away – but it’s another indication that the tour likes where it finds itself from a legal perspective.
There is sure to be a counterclaim that the Saudi fund and its managers aren’t compelled to sit for discovery because they have sovereign immunity, which prevents a government from being sued for its actions.
However, there is a commercial-activities exception to sovereign immunity which stipulates that the immunity does not extend to business ventures in another country.
And LIV Golf is a business venture.
Earlier this month during a hearing in which LIV’s lawyers asked to delay a hearing related to discovery, federal judge Susan van Keulen asked LIV’s lawyers how starting a rival golf league isn’t a commercial activity and what exactly does it have to do with governing a country in the Middle East?
Fair question.
That’s why the tour wants the cooperation of Al-Rumayyan and the PIF, making the point in its court filing last week:
“To sum up, PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan recruited players; decided how much to pay them; assured them about their positions and about indemnification from suit by PIF; and controlled the conduct of this litigation undertaken by PIF’s lawyers,” a portion of the claim read.
It’s fair to wonder whether the organizers of LIV Golf fully understood the legal challenges they would face. They promised PGA Tour players they would not lose their tour membership, but they did. They promised world-ranking points, but that has not yet happened, though LIV reportedly received an update on its request for points last week.
LIV’s lawsuit is based on the notion that the PGA Tour is a monopoly, crushing all competition and, in a broader sense, the golf world at large is bent on keeping them out. LIV subsequently signed five of the tour’s 10 most identifiable players and is just weeks away from launching a 14-event schedule with a new broadcast deal in place.
If the tour’s latest request is granted, cooperating fully in the discovery process – something LIV’s lawyers have pushed back against – would open the PIF to questions from other companies in which they are invested. A ruling against the PIF would set a precedent that it could be sued in the United States, potentially complicating its business interests.
As these things tend to do, this will grind along slowly. LIV will get its second season underway next month in Mexico, pleased to have landed a broadcast partner in the CW Network and pushing its concept of team competition and franchise branding.
If the court compels compliance from the Saudis and, after a likely appeal, there is little or no cooperation, it’s possible the entire case could be dismissed. LIV will have put itself in a legal box of its own making.
To those wishing for a peaceful resolution between LIV and the PGA Tour, forget about it. Get comfortable with a grudging coexistence.
No olive branches. No white doves.
And no golf tee throwing.
E-MAIL RON
Top: Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed cross paths at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
ROSS KINNAIRD, GETTY IMAGES