OPINION:
Several weeks ago, I turned on NBC’s Golf Channel to find PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan conducting a press conference where he trashed and threatened PGA Tour players for daring to partake in the new upstart LIV Golf, conceived of by golfing icon Greg Norman and financed by the Saudi Investment Fund.
Branding PGA Tour players in effect criminals for entering into a contract with LIV Golf, and smearing them for engaging in “sportwashing” by accepting “blood money” from the Saudi Investment Fund, Mr. Monahan could not contain his unhinged tirade — all the while making veiled threats to kill the new tour as an existential threat to the PGA Tour.
As someone who was a member of the trial team at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during the Reagan administration, which created competition in the telecommunications industry by breaking up the AT&T monopoly, I was immediately offended.
My initial reaction was that Mr. Monahan’s threats to suspend, ban and punish any PGA Tour player who might play in a LIV tournament would amount to per se violations of the antitrust laws. These violations would, at a minimum, include group boycotts, market division and other anticompetitive acts designed to eventually kill LIV Golf in its infancy — clearly snuffing out competition in what otherwise is a monopolistic golf industry. It appeared to me, just for starters, that this would create a pretext for a consumer class action lawsuit against the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and their commissioners.
As the founder of both Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, I believe in competition. So, it was natural that I would feel duty bound to craft a consumer class action to correct this injustice.
I filed my case in Florida, and, unsurprisingly, it has been largely ignored by the compromised golf media. My lawsuit has never even been mentioned on NBC’s Golf Channel, because this network, having huge lucrative contracts to broadcast PGA Tour and DP World Tour events, is obviously fearful that a rival major network will sign a deal with the LIV Golf tour to broadcast its golfing tournaments and events.
But the bottom line is this: The LIV Golf tour, if allowed to grow without interference from such anticompetitive acts, is a major threat to the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour because it offers what is a much better and more marketable product.
True to its name, “LIV,” which is the Roman numeral equivalent of 54, LIV Golf tournaments entail 54 holes of competition, not the monotonous 72 holes, 6-hour rounds and 12 hours per day of competition for players to endure and fans to watch an entire round in PGA Tour and DP World Tour events.
And, since a LIV Golf event comprises three rounds of golf, instead of the four on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, each individual round means a lot more in terms of a players ultimate success.
A LIV Golf tournament is also comprised of both individual and team competitions. Couple this with entertainment, music, good food and concessions, which are also present, and the LIV Golf tour was crafted to make a fan’s experience more enjoyable and fun, bringing in a younger audience as well.
LIV Golf is also attractive to top-tier professional golfers such as Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, to name just a few of the present stars, as the Saudi Investment Fund not only pays well, not just with guaranteed contract amounts and attendance stipends, but also with much larger purses at each golf tournament. Thus, competition is fierce.
And, importantly, since there are fewer events each year, spaced apart to a greater extent, the grind of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour is significantly lessened, allowing more time for a LIV golfer to have a family and personal life.
All of these benefits scare the hell out of the golfing tour establishment, and it’s colluding yes men at NBC’s Golf Channel in particular. So, in addition to group boycotts, market division and other anticompetitive acts, Big Golf has launched a barrage of highly defamatory attacks on the morality and character of the LIV Golfers. The primary mouthpiece for this poison has been a former third-rate professional golfer named Brandel Chamblee on Golf Channel.
This insipid and jealous commentator has taken the lead in calling LIV players — and world-class golfer Patrick Reed, in particular — cheaters, money hungry and greedy, sportswashers, takers of blood money, terrorists, murderers and other highly damaging names simply for playing on a tour financed by the Saudi Investment Fund, which has also invested heavily in U.S. companies.
And, with a contrived hatred for the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, he has made this Saudi monarch the whipping boy in his attempts to destroy LIV Golf and its players.
Intentionally not mentioned by Mr. Chamblee and others at Golf Channel is that Prince Mohammed loves and wants to promote golf — he is an accomplished golfer himself — and has built over 14 courses in the kingdom. And he is leading his nation into the 21st century. Why should we not encourage the prince, an American ally, to further modernize and reform the Saudi kingdom?
Yet, despite all of this, LIV Golf will succeed. Not just because it has a superior product to sell to fans, sponsors, networks and others, but because players like my client, Mr. Reed, will stand firm and not turn a blind eye to the hateful and anticompetitive conduct of the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and their collaborators in the establishment golf media.
• Larry Klayman is counsel for Patrick Reed and the founder of both Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch.
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