After winning a big legal battle, lawyer Larry Klayman has accused Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods of being “too important” to be deposed.
Larry Klayman, who recently won a significant legal victory in his antitrust case against the PGA Tour, has accused Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy of being “too important” to answer questions under oath.
Klayman is involved in a lawsuit against the PGA Tour in addition to representing Patrick Reed in his defamation case against golf media members.
In July of last year, a lawsuit known as “Klayman v. PGA Tour et al.” was filed in Palm Beach County’s 15th Judicial Circuit.
The lawyer has charged that the Tour, the DP World Tour, which is based in Europe, and other organizations are impeding competition for the rival LIV Golf League.
“The PGA Tour and DP World Tour, under the ‘leadership’ of Jay Monahan and Keith Pelley, respectively, have set out to destroy the LIV Golf Tour,” Klayman had previously stated, “using their superior market power, as set forth in the class action complaint.”
Klayman wishes to question Woods, 47, and McIlroy, 34, during their deposition as part of the lawsuit.
Hall of Famer Woods was charged in January with purposefully evading a subpoena in this particular case.
Katelyn Miller, a civil process server, previously claimed she attempted five times to deliver the court documents to the golfer at his Florida mansion.
“It seems like Mr. Woods is purposefully avoiding service, based on my background as a process server,” the woman stated.
On Christmas Eve, while McIlroy was at home with his wife Erica Stoll and daughter Poppy, he received his subpoena notice.
The Northern Irishman subsequently clarified that this was the reason he disregarded the previously mentioned Reed during the Dubai Desert Classic driving range.
Because the story was so ridiculous, Reed retaliated by flicking an oversized t-shirt with the LIV logo in the Ulsterman’s direction.
Later, McIlroy explained that he thought he had good reason to ignore the American, adding that he had no idea ‘what world’ Reed was living in.
A second attempt by the defendants to have the case dismissed was denied by the judge supervising this antitrust case on November 3.
Veteran of the PGA Tour Davis Love III is also a party to the lawsuit.
Klayman described the three golfers of attempting to ‘skate’ from discovery, adding: “Claiming that they were too important and famous, among other frivolous arguments, to be deposed.”
In a statement, Klayman said: “I am pleased Judge Delgado has again denied the PGA Tour and its commissioner Jay Monahan’s second frivolous motion to dismiss and that the damage claims will remain in the case, such that any discovery will now move forward.”
He added:
“As for the DP World Tour, its commissioner Keith Pelley and OWGR [Official World Golf Ranking], I am confident that after discovery they will again be inserted as defendants into this important public interest case, as their alleged fraud on the Court will be revealed over their doing systematic business and engaging in minimum contacts especially with the PGA Tour in Ponte Vedra, Florida, such that personal jurisdiction over them does exist.”
Documents in this case were previously mistakenly made public. They were placed back under seal.
But the bombshell docs appeared to show how the PGA Tour sought to strengthen their ties with the DP World Tour as they tried to fight LIV.
The docs appeared to indicate the Tour found the European Tour Group an ‘underinvested and borderline distressed asset’.
In spite of this discovery, the Tour wished to improve their ties in order to fortify their standing against the rival league supported by Saudi Arabia.
Other noteworthy talking points included prepared statements for the previously mentioned Woods to make at a town hall gathering with players from the PGA Tour.
It was rumored that Woods would be instructed to tell players to follow his lead and to tell the Saudis to “F off and mean it.”
Later, the 47-year-old claimed on X that he had “never seen” the papers.
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