Professional golf players Phil Mickelson and three other LIV golf players have withdrawn from their lawsuit against the PGA Tour, which was filed in 2015, reports Beton.ng. As part of the lawsuit, the four players were seeking $50 million in damages in addition to an end to the antitrust exemption enjoyed by the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour. According to CNN Sports, Mickelson’s attorney said his client will continue to seek changes in how the tour operates.
What’s the story?
Sports fans have been anticipating the potential showdown between Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, David Duval, Kenny Perry, Mike Weir, and Fred Funk in a trial against the PGA Tour. However, this week it was revealed that all of the golfers withdrew their lawsuits against the organization. The players had filed suit with accusations that the tour had used an unfair points system to determine who qualified for its events. The decision to withdraw comes after a federal judge recently ruled in favor of the tour’s motion to dismiss the case. According to reports, Judge Otis Wright dismissed the claim saying the plaintiffs do not allege any injury arising from conduct by the defendants as alleged or even inferable.
In addition, because plaintiffs fail to allege any injury arising from defendants’ alleged conduct as alleged or even inferable, they cannot establish either subject matter jurisdiction or standing. Accordingly, the court finds that the plaintiffs’ Complaint should be dismissed without prejudice.
The Players Association got involved
In September of 2016, Phil Mickelson and three other LIV Golf players filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claiming that they should be able to make their deals with sponsors and not have to adhere to what the tour tells them. They also claimed that they were being unreasonably restrained by the anti-competitive provisions in their contracts. In May 2017, they withdrew this suit after negotiations with the PGA Tour.
First, it’s not always wise to go into a fight when you can’t win it. The players may have been thinking that they had a strong case but in reality, their argument was weak so they would have lost if it went to court.
What does this mean?
This does not necessarily mean that the players are dropping their cases. They may be doing this to avoid the possibility of a default judgment. A default judgment can happen when the defendant in a case doesn’t respond to requests for information or court orders. If they don’t respond, then it is assumed that they agree with what the plaintiff is claiming which would lead to a quick judgment in favor of the plaintiff. By withdrawing, Phil Mickelson et al are simply taking themselves out of consideration for this possible scenario. For example, if they had filed an answer to the complaint and shown up at a hearing but failed to do so, they could be ordered into default without giving any reason as to why. But by withdrawing from the suit, this potential outcome is avoided. The withdrawal might also have been done because there was little hope of winning any damages at trial.
Lessons learned
- Phil Mickelson may have lost a lot of fans by going against the PGA Tour. It’s hard to say if this is a short-term issue or a long-term problem for him.
- Golfers are typically very independent, so, unsurprisingly, some players would want to voice their opinion on this.
- This isn’t the first time that LIV Golf has gone up against another major golf association, so Phil is used to the type of backlash he’ll receive for withdrawing from the suit.
- I’m still not sure how much money was at stake in this suit, but it seems like it was worth it for Phil to just walk away rather than drag out an ugly legal battle with his own governing body. 5. We can’t be sure what happened behind closed doors to make these four people decide to pull out of the suit, but it’s possible that they were being pressured into giving in by someone more powerful than them.
- There were reports about Rory McIlroy threatening to leave American tournaments if something didn’t change, and I wonder if maybe those reports had something to do with this decision.
- In any case, you can bet there will be repercussions because of all this publicity; whether they’re good or bad depends on which side you’re rooting for!
What does this mean for the game of golf? Who knows. But if you’re looking to bet on your favorite player, we got you covered! Check out 22bet app, to place bets on your favorite players.