Par4QC
I don't see the 'independent contractor' label as being literal as your analogy of labors in a labor union.
As I mentioned before if DOJ says they are in violation of anti trust laws then once the ban is lifted they're still held to the rules.
And again, the rules are you have to play 15 PGA Tour events a year and they don't give releases for North American events and only give 3 a year elsewhere. That was all in place before LIV came along.
So I can't see DOJ saying you can't have any rules for playing on the Tour. I haven't read what the punishments are if anyone disregarded the rules.
So I would think the suspensions are arbitrary and up to the commissioner just like Goodell in the NFL. So the only way I see around this is they play the 14 LIV events and at least 15 PGA Tour events.
Then they'd be in compliance with the PGA Tour criteria. Otherwise they'd be in constant violation of the rules. I doubt DOJ will say you can't set any rules to abide by.
