LIV Golf has accused the DP World Tour of a “clear attempt to interfere” with its restructuring process, after the European tour said it would refuse membership to anyone playing on the breakaway circuit next season.
During a court hearing on Wednesday, the attorney representing LIV said that the organisation was “quite concerned” by the stance taken by the rival DP World Tour.
Rob Fitzgerald of Gibson Dunn, the attorney representing LIV, also said that the organisation would know by the end of the month if it could continue in a ‘LIV 2.0’ guise.
“We’re continuing to monitor this situation very closely and we’re quite concerned by it frankly,” said Fitzgerald of the DP World Tour’s position.
“The timing in particular strikes us as a clear attempt to interfere with our process with our players and potentially our reorganisation writ large.
“It also raises a lot of the same anti-competitive concerns that LIV has expressed previously regarding the way competing leagues have sought to box out and punish market participants, namely these players, from participating in LIV and really only LIV.”
DP World Tour declined to comment on Fitzgerald’s statement, but Guy Kinnings, its CEO, told BBC Sport on Monday that “players need to make a choice,” toughening the organisation’s policy on playing across the tours.
In previous years, conditional releases were struck with some top players – including Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton – enabling them to play on both the DP World Tour and LIV.
“Player freedom is the reason LIV Golf was created, and it’s the foundation of LIV Golf 2.0, a league built around its players,” Fitzgerald added as he continued his argument in court.
“LIV has been vocal in its belief in free agency and that the best players should have greater flexibility to compete across the ecosystem. It’s unfortunate that another tour is taking an opposite view and pressuring our players with false choice.”
Judge Michael B. Kaplan, overseeing proceedings in the New Jersey Bankruptcy Court, replied: “The comments I have read do raise concerns.”
Responding to Kaplan’s request for clarity on the timeline of LIV 2.0’s creation, Fitzgerald said the “two critical pieces” were structural, relating to the investment from BC Partners, and having “sufficient number of players to have a bona fide golf league signed up by 25th of this month”.
“We are working hard around the clock both on the player front and on the structural front,” added Fitzgerald.
Asked when he would be able to advise the court “one way or the other” whether LIV was “toggling to a wind-down” or going forward, Fitzgerald said: “We would anticipate that decision will be made by the end of the month.
“Once we have full clarity on LIV 2.0, the debtors will need to very shortly begin making payments to host sites, vendors and other parties, so that we can schedule and prepare for LIV 2.0 events that we anticipate will take place shortly following the emergence.”
LIV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in September after Saudi Arabia withdrew its multibillion-dollar funding.
As part of the court-supervised “restructuring process”, which the organisation hopes to conclude in early 2027, player contracts have been “rejected” and no players are obligated to be part of LIV going forward.
During Wednesday’s hearing, 19 player contracts – including those of Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson – were rejected, after having been adjourned from a hearing last week because those players wanted clarity that contract rejection would enable them to have conversations with third parties about their futures.
LIV recruited a number of high profile players following its launch in 2021, but now owes its participants at least $45m (£33m).
Current Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed, who left LIV in January, has said he was accepted “from day one” after rejoining the European tour.
“This year fully playing on this tour only has been something I’ve really enjoyed and I feel like the guys have enjoyed having me come over and playing,” said Reed.
“I don’t feel any different. I feel like the guys have accepted me from day one.
“I can see how some of the guys would sit there and have an issue with guys coming over and just playing the big events.
“I’ve come over and played everything from big events, small events, events in the middle. I feel like it hasn’t been any different for me.”
Meanwhile, six-time major winner Rory McIlroy said that LIV was in “such a state of flux” and that the DP World Tour had been “more than accommodating” to the players seeking to leave the competition.
“The DP World Tour are well within their rights to change the rules and regulations,” said McIlroy in his press conference prior to the Thursday start of the DP World India Championship.
“This is a way to protect their business and to make the tour as strong as possible.”
On Tuesday he told Bloomberg he would vote to have LIV Golf defectors back on the PGA Tour and believed the breakaway circuit was no longer a threat to traditional tours.
