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Phil Mickelson and three LIV Golf pros withdrew as plaintiffs in the antitrust lawsuit filed against the PGA Tour on Tuesday.
Mickelson had been the headline plaintiff in the lawsuit when it was first filed in August. In a separate federal court filing, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, and Ian Poulter also withdrew as plaintiffs.
“Nothing has changed,” LIV Golf said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “The merits of the lawsuit — the PGA Tour’s anti-competitive conduct — still stand and will be fully tested in court, and we look forward to it.
“We stand by the players who the PGA Tour has treated so poorly, but we also recognize to be successful we no longer need a wide variety of players to be on the suit. We have our players’ backs and will press our case in court against the PGA’s anti-competitive behavior.”
Mickelson gave an indication earlier this month that he was going to drop out of the lawsuit.
“Now that LIV is involved, it’s not necessary for me to be involved,’’ Mickelson told Sports Illustrated in a story published on Aug. 15. “I currently still am. I don’t know what I’m going to do, really.”
In total, five plaintiffs have withdrawn from the lawsuit. Pat Perez withdrew from the case in August. Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Jason Kokrak also were dropped when an amended complaint. was filed last month.
That leaves three former PGA Tour players as the original defendants: Matt Jones, Bryson DeChambeau and Peter Uihlein.
Gooch and Swafford were among the plaintiffs — along with Jones — who were denied an injunction by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman on Aug 9. The three players had sought the injunction to clear them to play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
The case is scheduled to go to trial — if it survives summary judgment as the PGA Tour will bid to get the case dismissed — in January 2024.
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