As golf gears up for LIV Golf Invitational Series, sponsor lawyer says

As more golf's top athletes leave the PGA Tour in favor of the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series, the case for sponsoring sponsors is only getting stronger, according to one sports lawyer.

There's definitely safety in numbers - there's no question about that, Irwin Kishner, co-chairman of Herrick Feinstein's Sports Law Group, told Yahoo Finance. The more developed they get, the more established they get, the more likely you're going to have willingness to step up. On Wednesday, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed became the latest professional golfers to pledge their allegiance to the LIV Golf International Series. The rival tour kicked off on Thursday with a tournament at the Centurion Club north of London. The pair is playing in a field that includes prominent golfers Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen.

The PGA Tour suspended all PGA golfers participating in the LIV Golf events due to a violation of competitive events and media rights regulations.

Corporate actors are taking a stand: LIV Golf doesn't have a major broadcasting partner as of the opening weekend. The tournaments can be streamed on YouTube, Facebook, or LivGolf.com but won't be shown on normal golf staples like ESPN and CBS.

But as the PGA Tour bleeds out some of its best talent to a new league paying salaries that the PGA can't match, Kishner argued that broadcasting companies may follow the big names.

He said he doesn't think there's going to be a negative taint on a broadcasting company taking on that necessarily. The only thing that you are weighing is perhaps angering the PGA Tour and promoting it. I don't think there's a negative connotation simply because a broadcaster is broadcasting a live event with 20 of the best golfers in the world. Some sponsors denounced any involvement with Saudi money. The Royal Bank of Canada pulled its sponsorship with McDowell and Johnson while UPS pulled its sponsorship with Westwood. Callaway, Workday, KPMG and Heineken have all ended or paused relationships with Mickelson.

Kishner argued that there won't be a long list of sponsors to follow from the newly added players.

He said that it is not as if it is Russian-backed or North Korean-backed, and that he doesn't think that it's going to cause a disruption on sponsorship as one might think would happen. I don't see mass exodus. LIV Golf is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which raised questions about the humanitarian crimes committed by the Saudi Arabian government, including the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Monetary incentives have helped golfers overlook human rights concerns. The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund has pledged $255 million in prize money for the eight events, with a $25 million purse per tournament and guaranteed payouts for all 48 participants.

Johnson, my family and I, ranked No.1, chose what sounded the best for me and my family. As of last week, 13 on the PGA Tour had resigned from the tour, he told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. Johnson signed a roughly $125 million deal, not including prize money, for his participation in the eight-event LIV series. Johnson made a 15-year career in the PGA Tour that beats the $74 million in prize money.