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The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs will go ahead without any of the players who defected from the Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf Invitational Series.
A federal judge on Tuesday denied the bids of three golfers — Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford — seeking spots in the St. Jude this week, which starts Thursday in Memphis. The trio had sought a temporary restraining order allowing them to play in the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs, a three-tournament competition featuring the top 125 players in the season rankings.
In ruling against the players, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman said they failed to show their exclusion from the PGA Tour’s season-ending event caused “irreparable harm,” noting that they can earn more money competing in the LIV Golf Series.
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“The evidence shows almost beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will win more than they would have won and could reasonably have been expected to win within a reasonable period of time during 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 claim their careers were hurt when the PGA Tour punished them for signing with competitor LIV Golf , the Saudi-backed start-up that alienated some. of the biggest names in the sport with eight and nine figure contracts.
A spokesperson for LIV said in a statement Tuesday: “We are disappointed that Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones will not be able to play golf. No one wins by banning golfers from playing.”
Tuesday’s hearing focused heavily on the request for a temporary restraining order, not the broader antitrust issues, but Freeman’s ruling and comments about irreparable harm represent a major legal victory for the PGA Tour . The judge had access to some of the details of the golfers’ contracts, which were redacted in court documents, and said the players clearly understood what they were giving up by signing with LIV Golf.
“The court found 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 how much the players would have to monetize to make up for those losses,” Freeman. said
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The 11 golfers behind the lawsuit — Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Gooch, Swafford, Jones, Ian Poulter, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak and Peter Uihlein — were suspended by the PGA Tour when they made the jump to LIV. Golf.
Based on the most recent rankings, the three golfers seeking the temporary restraining order would have qualified to compete in the tournament: Gooch (No. 20 in the FedEx Cup rankings), Jones (No. 62) and Swafford (No. 63). but they have been banned by the PGA Tour.
In urging Freeman to deny the golfers’ requests, PGA Tour lawyers said in court documents that LIV golfers wanted to “have their cake and eat it too,” cashing the checks backed by the Saudi Arabia while they were still trying to make money on the PGA Tour. end of season tournaments. Tour attorney Elliot R. Peters told the court that allowing LIV golfers to compete in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event would be “devastating” for 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 their LIV Golf shirts and their press conferences are about LIV Golf, our event becomes a stage for the our competitor,” Peters told the judge. Tuesday. “… Wouldn’t LIV Golf like that? The opportunity to have your players promoting it in our marquee? That’s not fair to the PGA Tour.”
While he did not address the antitrust claims, Freeman noted on several occasions that LIV Golf has made progress toward becoming 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 left for the Saudi-backed breakaway organization.
“This is remarkable,” Freeman said.
That group includes DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, but three tournaments into its fledgling year, it looks like the ranks of LIV Golf are still growing. Cameron Smith, the Australian who won last month’s British Open, has agreed to a $100m contract and will soon skip the circuits, according to the Telegraph, and compatriot Marc Leishman is also bound for LIV.
Smith is on the field at the St. Jude this week and declined to discuss his plans at a press conference Tuesday. “My goal here is to win the FedEx Cup playoffs. That’s why I’m here,” he told reporters. “I have no comment on that.”
At Tuesday’s hearing, Freeman didn’t spend much time considering the merits of the antitrust claims made in the lawsuit, focusing instead on the request for a temporary restraining order. Lawyers for the players told the court the golfers should be allowed to compete in PGA Tour-sanctioned events while they appeal their suspensions.
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Attorneys for the tour, meanwhile, argued that the players waited too long — less than a week before the first round of the championship in St. Jude—to seek emergency intervention, and urged the court to “use its equitable powers to remedy real emergencies, not designed by parties who knowingly accepted multimillion-dollar payments to get themselves into the situation they are in.” “.
At times, the attorneys alluded to redacted portions of the court documents that apparently reveal details of the players’ contracts with LIV Golf. At one point on Tuesday, the players’ attorney, Robert C. Walters, referred to the players’ earnings from LIV events as counting the seed money they have received for signing with the initial series, which LIV officials have repeatedly denied.
While the LIV players’ lawsuit will continue (Freeman indicated a trial might not happen before next summer), the Justice Department is also investigating the tour for possible antitrust violations, according to the Wall Street Journal.