Farming avowed rep professional#
Farming avowed rep series#

In a November filing, the lawyers said the wealth fund “does not control LIV’s day-to-day-operations” and included a sworn statement from al-Rumayyan, who said it provided only “high level oversight” of LIV. (“I see a couple of important distinctions between that analogy and the facts,” the judge replied moments later.)īeyond arguments about the reach of American courts, wealth fund lawyers have also tried to distance the wealth fund and al-Rumayyan from the golf league. John Bash, a lawyer for the wealth fund, told van Keulen that deposing al-Rumayyan would be analogous to the United States Treasury secretary being susceptible to the demands of a Saudi court if a company owned by the American government faced litigation in Riyadh. The wealth fund’s lawyers argued that Peters had exaggerated the extent of al-Rumayyan’s role - or at least misinterpreted it - and that compliance with the PGA Tour’s demands would violate Saudi law.

Farming avowed rep series#

The wealth fund’s leader, Peters insisted, was so steeped in the operation of the golf series that an email showed that he was “involved in an issue about the delay in golfers’ scores being posted on a TV screen.” Moreover, Peters told the judge that al-Rumayyan had “personally assured golfers” that the wealth fund would back them legally and that al-Rumayyan had been involved in regular meetings about LIV Golf. They knew it was going to involve broadcast agreements, which is central to the antitrust case, which they control and had the ability to either approve or disapprove of.” They knew it was going to involve sponsor issues on the antitrust side, which they control. They knew it was going to involve player agreements, which they control. They knew it was going to be brought by a subsidiary that they fund completely. “They knew it was going to be filed in a U.S. “They consent to this litigation,” Peters said of the wealth fund, which he said effectively owns 93 percent of LIV Golf.

Prince Mohammed is the wealth fund’s chairman. The PGA Tour, facing perhaps the greatest competitive threat in its history, and its supporters complain that the rebel series is promoting a diluted version of the game and helping Saudi Arabia distract from its record on human rights.Īlthough much of what it has learned in litigation remains under seal, the PGA Tour has depicted LIV Golf as routinely subservient to the desires and whims of the wealth fund, formally known as the Public Investment Fund, and al-Rumayyan, an avowed golf fan who is close to Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Farming avowed rep professional#

LIV Golf and its champions say they are seeking to revive a sport whose professional level, they contend, has grown stale. But the signings of headline players - including Sergio García, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith - have revealed only so much about LIV Golf’s ambitions and the wealth fund’s motives for investing billions of dollars in an enterprise that McKinsey & Company consultants warned was nothing close to a sure bet. Over the last year, LIV Golf, backed by billions of dollars from the Saudi wealth fund, has enticed a handful of elite players away from the PGA Tour in exchange for some of the most lucrative contracts in the sport’s history.

In her 58-page ruling, portions of which were redacted in the version that became public late Thursday as the sides jousted about its confidentiality, van Keulen wrote that it was “plain” that the wealth fund was “not a mere investor in LIV.”Ī representative of the wealth fund declined to comment, but its lawyers said in a separate court filing that it and al-Rumayyan “respectfully intend to seek review of the order,” which van Keulen initially issued under seal last week.

The wealth fund is expected to ask a federal judge in San Jose, Calif., to review the decision by the magistrate judge, Susan van Keulen, who is helping oversee the bitter legal clash between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. The decision, released on Thursday night in California after an interim legal skirmish that dealt with questions of sovereign immunity and the reach of Saudi law, could reveal details of the wealth fund’s operations and the power of its governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, over its investments abroad. A federal magistrate judge has ruled that the leader of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which has bankrolled the new LIV Golf series, must sit for a deposition by lawyers for the PGA Tour who sought his testimony as part of the tangle of litigation involving the sport-splitting circuit.