PGA Tour Suspends Players Participating in Rival Golf Series

Dustin Johnson, right, and Phil Mickelson, foreground, played on the first day at the LIV Golf Invitational Series event at the Centurion Club outside London.Credit...Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesLONDON — The PGA Tour on Thursday said it had suspended the 17 players who have taken part in the first event of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, a move that punished the rebel pros but also seemed aimed at dissuading further defections.

In a memo sent to his membership, the PGA Tour’s commissioner, Jay Monahan, said those golfers who teed off in the first LIV Golf event, which began Thursday outside London, were “no longer eligible to participate” in events on the American-based…