Rory's Lawyers Request Ultra-Sensitive GMac Documents, Prompting Judge To Suggest Mediation

Perhaps wanting to keep peace for Team Europe, the Judge in the Rory McIlroy vs. Horizon management case analyzed an application for discovery of "sensitive" documents related to Graeme McDowell's days at Horizon and asked the lawyers, “Is this not a case that is made for mediation?”

From an unbylined Irish Independent report.

“Is this not a case that is made for mediation?” he asked Mr Fanning, for McIlroy, and Ciaran Lewis for Horizon and two related defendants. “The case has all sorts of sensitivities involving two players on tour, a manager of one of them and a former manager or agent of the other.  It has all sorts of complex issues involving relationship matters,” the judge said.

Oh but it gets better.

Philip Reid's story in the Irish Times focuses on Horizon's contention that Rory destroyed evidence on a cell phone pertinent to the case.

In a sworn affidavit to the High Court in Dublin yesterday, Ridge contended McIlroy – who signed a representation agreement with Horizon in December 2011 but who has taken litigation seeking to void the contract – had “professed himself . . . to use only mobile phone devices for communication, to keep no notes and to correspond in no other way with any third parties. Despite this and after the litigation had commenced, Mr McIlroy destroyed data held on at least one mobile device, in particular the mobile phone which he had been using during the crucial period between January and May 2013, thus preventing a review of that data for the purposes of discovery.”

Brian Keogh analyzes some of the information that has surfaced in the proceedings and has Rory's Nike deal as the center of the disagreement over how much Rory is willing to pay Horizon of the 5-year $100 million package. Besides the prospect of taking the stand in a trial just weeks ahead of the Masters and risking his reputation, Keogh says the documents also reveal that dragging Ryder Cup teammate Graeme McDowell into the case was a more recent and perhaps desperate move by his solicitors to wreak havoc for Horizon.

McDowell has since left Horizon to start his own company.

McDowell has acknowledged some strain will linger in the friendship as long as the proceedings move forward, and while this week's goings on may not be news to McDowell, they're almost sure to come up next week at the Ryder Cup.