DeChambeau One Of Just Two LIV Players In PGA Tour Lawsuit After Uihlein Drops Out

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 5 May 2023

Peter Uihlein has withdrawn from the LIV Golf lawsuit against the PGA Tour, leaving just Bryson DeChambeau and Matt Jones from the original 11 players with their names on proceedings.

Last August Uihlein joined the likes of Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter, Talor Gooch, Pat Perez and Jason Kokrak in challenging the suspension handed out by the PGA Tour for them joining LIV.

Players have gradually withdrawn from the legal action, with Uihlein the ninth to step away from the lawsuit after he was granted a voluntary dismissal by a court in San Jose on Thursday.

It’s now just American DeChambeau and Australian Jones who remain as players with their names attached to the lawsuit, with LIV Golf claiming damages for what it says is “the PGA Tour’s bad faith and egregious interference with LIV Golf’s contractual and perspective business relationships.”

The rest of the players backed out when LIV Golf as an organisation became involved in the lawsuit, but DeChambeau has previously claimed it’s a more personal stance for him.

The 2020 US Open champion says the PGA Tour still owes him money from the Player Impact Program (PIP) and is using the lawsuit to get the cash he says they have no right to withhold.

“One of the reasons I’m in the lawsuit is because they haven’t paid me my second half of the PIP money,” DeChambeau said in October last year. “The money isn’t the significant part, it’s more the principle.

“To me that’s childish and it just shows where they stand emotionally. I respect it and I understand it, but when you complete something and you provided entertainment for them last year and I completed that…that’s the reason why I’m in the lawsuit.”

Legal debates are still taking place but with now players continuing to drop out it’s becoming more of a battle between the two businesses and their leaders than it is with anything sporting happening on the course.

Whether Jones or DeChambeau will remain involved in the lawsuit as the only two left in remains to be seen.

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Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.

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