Antitrust me, bro

Eleven players on the LIV Golf circuit, including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour yesterday.

⛳️🥊 Background: Earlier this year, LIV Golf launched a new professional league. Its goal? Rival the PGA Tour by attracting players with lofty contracts and big purses, all backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from the Saudi Arabian government. But this strategy is saddling golfers with a choice.

• The PGA tour suspends anyone competing in outside tournaments held in North America, meaning they can either a) stay on the Tour and forgo North American LIV events, or b) take the money and eat the grapes of PGA wrath.

📝 Which brings us to yesterday… In the lawsuit, the 11 golfers allege the Tour’s restrictive policies are an attempt to illegally limit the supply of pro players and hamper LIV Golf’s ability to compete. They’re asking for their Tour suspensions to be lifted, and for unspecified monetary damages.

⚖️ Zoom out: The DOJ launched an antitrust investigation last month into whether the Tour engaged in anticompetitive behavior. The PGA Tour ​​has said it believes their rules are appropriate and legal, similar to other contract agreements ​​across the economy.

Stay tuned.