Augusta-based Morris Communications, which has
published the PGA Tour's real-time golf scores on the
Internet and owns Jacksonville's Florida Times-Union and the
Augusta Chronicle, filed an antitrust lawsuit in a
Jacksonville U.S. District Court against the Tour, claiming
the Tour "has monopolized real-time scores on its own Web
site and prohibits Morris from selling its scoring package
to a third party," according to Doug Ferguson of the AP.
The Tour has developed the computerized system to report
real-time scores, in which scores are "tabulated and posted
electronically as soon as a player completes a hole," then
posts live scoring updates on its Web site, pgatour.com,
which sells advertising. The Tour said that "while scores
from PGA events are public knowledge, its scoring system is
proprietary and it will 'vigorously defend itself against
the lawsuit.'" Ferguson adds that Morris "asked for a
preliminary injunction that would keep the tour from
prohibiting the media group from selling its information
until the lawsuit is resolved." Augusta Chronicle GM &
Morris spokesperson Julian Miller: "The PGA Tour has said we
cannot come into their media center, take the information
and provide it to other media, except to post it on our own
site. Our argument is, once we have it, then it's in the
public domain and we are free to report it wherever we can.
... It's uncanny that a fight for free press is in the
middle of a golf tournament, but that's where the Internet
and traditional coverage are starting to clash." Morris
works from each tournament's media center and this year,
using the PGA Tour scoring system, posts its own real-time
scores for CNNSI.com and its news outlets. Miller also said
that Morris has sold its scoring package to the Denver Post
during The International tournament, which took place in
August (AP, 10/13). In FL, Paul Pinkham wrote that a
hearing on Morris' motion for the preliminary injunction "is
requested within five days" in court. Morris and the Tour
"have been arguing about the issue" of real-time scores
since '99, and "at one point" during the dispute, the Tour
"agreed to let" Morris use live scores from the Tour Web
site. But the lawsuit states Morris found the site was
"frequently untimely, inaccurate and incomplete." On
October 4, the Tour "rescinded" Morris' Internet credentials
for the Tampa Bay Classic tournament, set to take place next
week (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 10/12).
