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The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs will be held without any of the players who defected to the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series.
On Tuesday, a federal judge rejected the bid of three golfers — Taylor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swofford — seeking spots in this week’s St. Jude Championship, which begins Thursday in Memphis. The trio has sought a temporary restraining order that would allow them to play in the season-ending FedEx Cup Playoffs, a three-tournament competition that features the top 125 golfers in the season’s rankings.
In ruling against the players, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman said they had failed to prove their exclusion from the PGA Tour’s season-ending event amounted to “irreparable harm,” noting they could earn more money. by competing in the LIV Golf Series.
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“The evidence shows almost beyond doubt that they will earn more than they would and could reasonably be expected to do in a reasonable amount of time within the tournaments,” Freeman said.
The request for a temporary restraining order was part of a federal antitrust lawsuit filed last week by 11 golfers who say their careers suffered when the PGA Tour punished them for signing with rival LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed startup that lured some of the biggest names in sports with eight- and nine-figure contracts.
A spokesperson for LIV said in a statement on Tuesday: “We are disappointed that Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones will not be allowed to play golf. No one benefits from banning golfers from playing.
Tuesday’s hearing was narrowly focused on the request for a temporary restraining order rather than the broader antitrust issues, but Freeman’s ruling and her comments regarding irreparable harm represent an important legal victory for the PGA Tour. The judge had access to some of the golfers’ contract details, which were redacted in court documents, and said the players clearly understood what they were giving up by signing with LIV Golf.
“It appears to the court that the LIV contracts negotiated by the players and executed between the parties were based on the players’ calculation of what they would leave behind and the amount the players would have to cash out to offset those losses,” Freeman said.
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The 11 golfers behind the lawsuit — Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Gooch, Swofford, Jones, Ian Poulter, Abraham Unser, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak and Peter Uhlein — were suspended from the PGA Tour when they made the jump to LIV Golf.
Based on the most recent rankings, the three golfers seeking a temporary restraining order would have qualified to compete in the tournament — Gooch (No. 20 in the FedEx Cup rankings), Jones (No. 62) and Swofford (No. 63) — but they are banned from the PGA Tour.
Urging Freeman to reject the golfers’ demands, PGA Tour lawyers said in court documents that LIV golfers wanted to “have their cake and eat it too,” cashing the Saudi-backed checks while still trying to cash in on PGA Tour tournaments at the end of the season. The tour’s attorney, Elliott R. Peters, told the court that allowing LIV golfers to compete in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event would be “detrimental” to the tour.
“If we are ordered to lift the suspension and they show up on Thursday morning to play in their LIV Golf hats and LIV Golf T-shirts and their press conferences are about LIV Golf, our event becomes a stage for our competitor,” Peters said on the judge Tuesday. “… Won’t LIV Golf love it? The opportunity for his players to promote him at our main event? It’s not fair to the PGA Tour.”
While not addressing the antitrust claims, Freeman noted repeatedly that LIV Golf has made strides to become a competitive entity in a relatively short period of time. At one point, the tour’s attorney shared a slide showing that half of the top 10 players in the tour’s Player Impact Program last year had left the breakaway Saudi-backed organization.
“It’s remarkable,” Freeman said.
That group includes DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, but after three tournaments in the fledgling year, LIV Golf’s ranks clearly continue to grow. Cameron Smith, the Australian who won last month’s British Open, has agreed a $100 million contract and will soon jump the chains, according to the Telegraph, while his compatriot Marc Leishman is also linked with LIV.
Smith is on the field at the St. Jude Championship this week and declined to discuss his plans at a news conference Tuesday. “My goal here is to win the FedEx Cup playoffs. That’s all I’m here for,” he told reporters. “I have no comment on that.”
At Tuesday’s hearing, Freeman didn’t spend much time addressing the merits of the antitrust claims raised in the lawsuit, focusing on the request for a temporary restraining order. Lawyers for the players told the court that the golfers should be allowed to compete in PGA Tour-sanctioned events while they appeal their suspensions.
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Meanwhile, lawyers for the tour argued that the players waited too long – less than a week before the first round of the St. Jude Championship – to seek emergency intervention, urging the court in the case to “use its equitable powers to remedy genuine emergencies, were not created by parties who knowingly accepted multi-million payoffs to put themselves in the situation they are in.”
Attorneys sometimes referred to redacted portions of court documents that apparently revealed details of players’ contracts with LIV Golf. At one point on Tuesday, the players’ attorney, Robert S. Walters, referred to the players’ winnings from LIV events being counted against the advance money they received for signing on to the inaugural series, something LIV officials have repeatedly denied .
Although the LIV players’ lawsuit will continue — Freeman indicated the trial may not take place until next summer — the Justice Department is also investigating the tour for potential antitrust violations, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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