Federal judge denies three LIV golfers' bid to compete in FedEx Cup playoffs
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A federal judge on Tuesday denied a temporary restraining order to three golfers who were seeking to participate in the FedEx Cup Playoffs after leaving the PGA Tour for the upstart LIV Golf Invitational Series.
The players, Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford, were seeking relief to participate in the first leg of the playoffs, at this week's FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind.
The top 125 players in the FedEx Cup standings are eligible to compete in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Gooch is 20th in the standings, Jones is 65th and Swafford is 67th. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended the players after they appeared in LIV Golf tournaments without conflicting-event releases from the Tour.
U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman, of the Northern District of California, ruled that the LIV players had not made their case of irreparable harm and agreed with the Tour's position that the players' argument for emergency relief was of "their own making."
"They made a business decision to receive money," PGA Tour lawyer Elliot Peters argued during the hearing. "They have made in the last two months more money than they've ever made on the PGA Tour. They have already been paid to compensate for what they are here complaining about."
Gooch, Jones and Swafford and eight other LIV Golf players, including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in federal court last week.
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