LIV Golf Loses Bid To Delay Discovery Process In PGA Tour Lawsuit

LIV Golf has failed in a bid to delay a discovery hearing in their antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, which now means lawyers of the two parties will now set about digging into each other in this bitter legal dispute.

A northern California U.S. District Court judge has denied the request to delay the discovery hearing by legal representatives of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who fund LIV Golf.

Lawyers for Al-Rumayyan and the PIF wanted Friday’s scheduled hearing to be put back to allow them more time to deal with what is a complicated process of discovery considering it’s against a foreign sovereign wealth fund.

“[The motions to compel] raise complex, sensitive, novel, and critically important issues of foreign sovereign immunity and international comity,” lawyers had said.

11 suspended PGA Tour players originally launched the action in August after they were banned for playing in LIV Golf, as the Tour said it violated its policies and playing without being released.

LIV Golf then joined the lawsuit, but by doing so gave the PGA Tour the chance to seek discovery from the PIF and question Al-Rumayyan.

That has not been greatly received by those from Saudi Arabia, who are looking to stop deny the Tour’s discovery request but have so far failed, and now face the prospect of Al-Rumayyan being deposed.

It’s yet another twist in the take that won’t be ending anytime soon, but an interesting one sin the momentum of matters as it looks like LIV Golf’s investors are on the back foot.

Greg Norman’s outfit are set to embark on their second season with the newly-named LIV Golf League consisting of 14 events across the world.

Neither side seems to be backing down or willing to enter into peace talks and they’ll likely continue to but heads unless some form of agreement can be found.