Judge rules Phil Mickelson, Hudson Swafford, Talor Gooch still subject to discovery in antitrust lawsuit

Phil Mickelson, Hudson Swafford and Talor Gooch withdrew from the antitrust lawsuit that was filed against the PGA Tour in August, but a U.S. District Court judge ruled Thursday that their agents are still subject to discovery, including any non-privileged electronic information related to their clients and LIV Golf.

Judge Susan van Keulen ruled in favor of continued discovery citing a standard that “applies no matter whether the responding person is a party to the litigation or a third-party subject.”

Attorneys for Mickelson, Swafford and Gooch had argued that the Tour’s discovery requests could impact LIV Golf-related communications of other clients and the court agreed, stipulating in the order that the search is “designed to limit the scope of the results to materials related to their agent’s representation of the players and not other potential principals.”

Van Keulen also approved three motions to bridge international boundaries and require representatives from the DP World Tour, European CEO Keith Pelley and the R&A, which LIV Golf claims are part of an existing “ecosystem” atop professional golf that colluded to undermine the Saudi-backed league, to be deposed and subject to discovery.