LIV Golf lawsuit reveals Sergio Garcia and Greg Norman WhatsApp chat
One exhibit from the LIV Golf antitrust lawsuit showed a message conversation between Sergio Garcia and Greg Norman, revealing the Aussie's confidence that PGA Tour bans were unlawful.
A WhatsApp message conversation between Sergio Garcia and Greg Norman has been revealed as part of the antitrust lawsuit filed by 11 LIV Golf players against the PGA Tour.
As explained by Golf Magazine's Dylan Dethier, the text conversation was exhibit 6 in the legal document which opposes the suspensions given to players for joining the LIV Golf tour.
In this conversation, Garcia shows concern of the Tour's threats of lifetime bans and he confirms that young players were made to feel anxious by the guidelines set out by commissioner Jay Monahan.
Norman, 67, seemed confident that the bans were just verbal warnings with no substance until the players' agents were gathered in February and told the lifetime bans were real.
"They cannot ban you for one day let alone life," Norman assertively said to Garcia after the Spaniard doubted if the LIV Golf schedule would be able to attract top players under these conditions.
Interesting to see how insistent Norman was (in these texts with Sergio) that the PGA Tour wouldn't and couldn't suspend players.
"They cannot ban you for one day let alone life." pic.twitter.com/foSDSIOg2L
— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) August 5, 2022
As you can see in the messages above, Norman was keen to get the threats on paper. These messages suggest that LIV Golf are confident of victory in the courts.
Despite verbally expressing his resentment for the PGA Tour at the Wells Fargo Championship and resigning his membership, Garcia has decided to maintain his membership with the DP World Tour which makes him eligible for the Ryder Cup.
Since this conversation, LIV has managed to attract a whole host of major champions and recognisable faces such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed.
The antitrust lawsuit revealed that Phil Mickelson was suspended from the PGA Tour back in March for supposedly attempting to recruit players to the Saudi-backed series.
Matt Jones, Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford are set for a courting hearing on Tuesday in California to discover if they will return to the FedEx Cup standings.
