According to documents obtained by Golfweek, LIV Golf made an unsuccessful attempt to bring more parties into the fracas. It requested third-party discovery of communications involving Augusta National members earlier this month as part of its antitrust suit against the PGA Tour.
LIV Golf lawyers served subpoenas on former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and a half-dozen of the Tour’s policy boards directors in the latest round of legal salvos. The filing contained a request for all communications between the parties and “any member of Augusta National relating a New Tour including LIV Golf.”
LIV Golf lawyers claimed that Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, and Warren Stephens Bank CEO tried to influence the Department of Justice (Department of Justice), to not investigate the Tour.”
The request was rejected Monday by a U.S. District Court of Northern California Judge. U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen ruled:
These documents are not intended to implicate the Subpoenaed Party. They also do not reflect communications between or among the identified additional targets. The identified targets are merely names on lists or other oblique references that have been made by others. Based on the cited documents, any connection between an identified target, and a Subpoenaed Party is highly speculation.
LIV Golf lawyers have alleged that PGA Tour illegally suspended players. However, the latest accusations are about whether the Tour tried to leverage the threat of not playing at future Masters as leverage in their ongoing battle.
