Judge denies LIV plea to expand discovery to Augusta members

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A federal decide denied a request by LIV Golf to develop discovery in its antitrust lawsuit in opposition to the PGA Tour to incorporate communication with 10 Augusta Nationwide members, together with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

LIV Golf had issued subpoenas to 5 PGA Tour board members and Tim Finchem, the retired PGA Tour commissioner. It wished all communications between them and “any member of Augusta Nationwide” referring to a brand new tour, however not restricted to LIV Golf, the Saudi-funded rival league that launched final yr.

In a redacted submitting final week, LIV alleged Rice and Arkansas banking government Warren Stephens “apparently tried to affect” the Justice Division to not examine the PGA Tour.

LIV additionally alleged Stephens was “apparently requested by tour staff” to push Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, to foyer in opposition to LIV.

In her ruling Monday, U.S. Justice of the Peace Susan van Keulen stated LIV’s request for 10 further Augusta Nationwide members and the Masters Committee “is overly burdensome on the Subpoenaed Events and never in proportion to the wants of the litigation.”

Communication with the extra 10 members would have gone past what she described as “agreed-upon targets.” These had been 4 Augusta Nationwide staff, together with Chairman Fred Ridley, and 7 members. The members embrace Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, which owns Golf Channel.

LIV Golf attorneys argued in final week’s submitting that a part of the PGA Tour’s try to snuff out competitors from the brand new tour was to threaten gamers, different excursions, broadcasters, distributors and every other third social gathering in the event that they labored with LIV.

“Discovery has proven that the tour delivered these threats not solely by way of its personal executives and staff, however by dispatching different influential individuals on its behalf,” LIV attorneys wrote within the submitting.

The decide stated any connection primarily based on the paperwork LIV cited is “extremely speculative.”

“The cited paperwork don’t implicate in any means the Subpoenaed Events,” she wrote in her order. “Nor do they mirror communications by or between the recognized further targets. Certainly, for essentially the most half, the recognized targets seem merely as names on lists or in different indirect references made by others.”

Tour attorneys beforehand had argued that LIV accusations of the tour leaning on Augusta Nationwide to dam LIV Golf gamers from competing within the Masters was baseless as a result of the Masters introduced in December that everybody eligible would have the ability to play.

The 16 LIV Golf gamers eligible for the Masters embrace Bryson DeChambeau, who stays certainly one of three gamers nonetheless listed as a plaintiff within the antitrust lawsuit.

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