Phil Mickelson Suspended for Two Years by PGA Tour
For recruiting players to LIV Golf, Mickelson received a one-month suspension on March 22. Eleven LIV Golf players have filed a lawsuit against the PGA Tour, requesting the sanctions be lifted.
According to a lawsuit filed by 11 LIV Golf players, Phil Mickelson, a Hall of Famer for over a decade with 45 PGA Tour victories, will be prohibited from reapplying for his tour card until March 31, 2024.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan initially suspended Phil Mickelson, 52, for two months on March 22 over his recruitment of PGA Tour players to compete in LIV Golf events. Mickelson has won at least 20 times and has been a member for at least 15 years.
With support from LIV Golf Investments, a company that invests in golf, three players, including Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford will be able to compete in the FedEx Cup playoffs after the indefinite suspensions are lifted.
The LIV Golf Invitational Series, a controversial new venture, has eight events this year and will become the LIV Golf League in 2023, with a 14-tournament schedule, according to reports.
Mickelson, who became the world’s oldest major champion in 2021 at the age of 50, was one of a number of high-profile players to sign lucrative multi-year contracts to compete in LIV events, which offer $25 million purses.
However, Reed and Koepka have not joined Mickelson in the lawsuit. As soon as they joined LIV, Johnson and Garcia resigned from their PGA Tour memberships.
Mickelson was suspended for two months, according to the lawsuit, and he applied for reinstatement on June 20 but was denied. Mickelson’s ban was extended until March 31, 2023, as a result of his participation in the inaugural LIV event in London. It was extended again until March 31st, 2024, when he played in the Portland LIV event.
It has been the PGA Tour’s policy to grant players up to three conflicting event releases annually for overseas tournaments with additional restrictions. Due to its belief that LIV was a hostile competitor, it refused to release such material for the London event. The longer penalties are likely due to the fact that it has never granted domestic event releases.
Before the first LIV Golf event in June, Phil Mickelson told Sports Illustrated that he was not planning to resign from his PGA Tour membership and that his lifetime status should matter. He is not obligated to participate in a certain number of tournaments as a lifetime member.
Phil Mickelson expressed his gratitude for the PGA Tour’s 30-plus years of service. What a treasure trove of memories and experiences we’ve shared. And I’d like to think that during that time, I had some influence on the PGA Tour. In addition, I now have a membership that will last for the rest of my life. That’s what I’m hoping for. In addition to allowing me to keep my lifetime membership, I believe it is critical that all players have the freedom to play wherever they choose.
“I worked really hard to earn that lifetime membership,” Mickelson said later in the interview. In the future, I hope to be able to compete on any tour I choose, whether it’s the PGA Tour, LIV, or somewhere else.”
“The Tour’s anticompetitive scheme is evident from the disciplinary action levied against Plaintiff Micklelson,” the lawsuit stated, and listed several ways in which it believes he has been harmed as a result of the “Tour’s unlawful suspensions.”
The following are examples of complaints:
Mickelson has been denied the platform and public exposure he would have had had he been able to participate in a tour tournament.” The suspension of the Tour has prevented Phil Mickelson from playing professional golf in tournaments that he would prefer to participate in. Mr. Mickelson can no longer play professional golf in front of his fans in person or via live video broadcast at Tour events because the Tour has been suspended. The Tour’s illegal conduct cost Mickelson sponsorships and endorsements. As the only golf tour regularly broadcast on US broadcast television, the Tour generates far more revenue in sponsorship, advertising, and broadcast than any other golf tour in the world. Noteworthy. the Player Impact Program, which measures a player’s impact among other things by calculating his Nielsen score, was deprived of its ability to pay Plaintiff Mickelson up to $10 million per year because of Tour’s illegal conduct (how often a player is featured during PGA Tour tournament broadcasts). To put it another way: The Tour’s suspension has prevented Mr. Mickelson from earning FedEx Cup and OWGR rankings.
