PGA Facing Caddie Class Action Over Corporate Logos on Bibs

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A group of more than 80 golf caddies have filed a class action lawsuit in a California federal court against PGA Tour, Inc. for not being paid to wear the logos of corporate sponsors when working at the organization’s golf competitions, saying that they are treated like “second-class participants” by the PGA Tour.

“The purposes of this lawsuit are to compensate caddies who have been forced to wear the logos of [the PGA Tour’s] corporate sponsors without remuneration, and to preclude [the PGA Tour] from forcing caddies to provide these endorsement services gratuitously in the future,” they say in their class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

The golf caddies explain in their class action lawsuit that they are an important element in the sport of golf with a long history. Skilled caddies are expected to have extensive knowledge of the sport and “must know the correct yardage for every lie on every hole, and they must be skilled in reading greens.

“Caddies also serve as coaches, strategists, general assistants, cheerleaders, counselors, and friends,” they add in their class action lawsuit.

“It is quite common and acceptable for a struggling golfer to terminate his caddie because of poor tournament results,” the PGA Tour class action lawsuit claims. “If caddies merely carried bags, certainly they would not be terminated as a result of poor play.”

Caddies are not employed by the PGA Tour, but by their respective golfers.

“Despite the caddies’ contribution to professional golf, [the PGA Tour] has treated caddies as second-class participants of the game,” they claim in the class action lawsuit.

In addition, the PGA Tour allegedly forces caddies to “unlawfully” force professional golf caddies to wear bibs that “bear the logos of [the PGA Tour’s] sponsors and enjoy significant exposure to live tournament audiences, television audiences, and web case audience.

Such sponsors include major companies such as Coca-Cola Inc. and FedEx Corp.

“The value of the bibs is approximately $50 million annually,” the PGA Tour class action lawsuit claims. “Caddies receive none of that revenue and never have consented to Defendant’s commercial use of their likenesses and images.”

However, “the plain text of [the PGA Tour’s] ‘regulations’ permits caddies to endorse their own sponsors’ products and services in the space occupied by the bibs, and defendant does not employ the caddies,” the caddies say in their class action lawsuit.

The caddies claim in the class action lawsuit that the PGA Tour has threatened “to interfere with the caddie-player relationship” if they don’t wear the bibs.

The caddies are charging the PGA Tour with violating two sections of the Sherman Act, with right of publicity and misappropriation of likeness, with breach of contract, unjust enrichment, quantum meruit, and money had and received, with violating the Lanham Act, with duress and business compulsion, and with violating California’s unfair competition law.

The PGA Tour caddies are seeking to represent a nationwide class of caddies, “who, without remuneration, wear or have worn bibs bearing the logos of Defendant PGA Tour’s sponsors or those of Defendant’s partners or affiliates, while providing caddie services to a golfer participating in a tournament on one of Defendant PGA Tour’s Three Tours pursuant to an agreement between such golfer and such caddie.”

The caddies are asking for damages, disgorgment of money that the PGA Tour has benefited from as a result of the caddies wearing the bibs and preliminary injunction requiring that the PGA Tour “will maintain the status quo among the parties pending the outcome of this case.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Lee Cirsch, W. Mark Lanier, Eugene R. Egdorf, Benjamin T. Major, Ryan D. Ellis and Arthur R. Miller of the Lanier Law Firm.

Counsel information for the PGA Tour was not immediately available.

The PGA Tour Golf Caddie Class Action Lawsuit  is William Michael Hicks et al. v. PGA Tour Inc., Case No. 3:15-cv-00489, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Feb. 9, 2016, the PGA Tour class action lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge who stated that caddies agreed to wear a uniform when they accepted the position.