The LIV has agreed to pay $1 million to Stinger Golf to settle a trademark infringement lawsuit with the Ohio-based golf tee manufacturer.
The Stinger Golf Club, one of LIV’s original four-man teams when the league debuted in 2022, rebranded to Southern Guards GC in January ahead of the tumultuous 2026 LIV campaign.
That change did not precede Stinger Golf’s move to sue LIV for $100 million in June 2025.
The company ended up accepting $1 million from LIV, per a July 6 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
“Obviously $1 million doesn’t represent all the damages that our client suffered,” Brian Barakat, a partner at Barakat + Bossa, the firm that represented Stinger Golf, told Front Office Sports.
“It’s a settlement. Settlements are necessarily a compromise. What LIV did in this circumstance was pretty gross. We know that they knew long before they set up the Stinger Golf Club team that they were aware of our trademark, and they just decided that they didn’t care.”
The rebranded Southern Guards GC consists of South African players Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Dean Burmeister.
Stinger Golf, which sells its tees in golf retail locations throughout the U.S. as well as online, was motivated to accept the compromise due to concern over LIV entering bankruptcy proceedings.
“They bowed to the realities of this situation and made a compromise that made business sense for them,” Barakat said. “We were very confident to go to trial. It wasn’t a compromise based on any fear of loss in the case. It was a compromise based on what we viewed as an imminent bankruptcy.”
LIV, World Wide Golf Brands, a former apparel partner of LIV, and the Stinger GC golf team were listed as defendants in the case. Only LIV will be making payments to the company.
–Field Level Media
