The members of LIV Golf Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones will not play in the St. Jude FedEx Cup tournament this week after losing his case to a temporary restraining order in court Tuesday in San Jose, California.
US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman heard the case and ruled in favor of the PGA Tourwhich had filed a motion in federal court to prevent the three suspended players from competing in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Gooch, Swafford and Jones argued that the suspension of the PGA Tour was causing them “irreparable” damage. However, the judge sided with the PGA Tour, which argued that the players were trying to “have their cake and eat it too,” according to the tour’s motion. “LIV contracts are based on players’ calculation of what they were leaving behind,” Freeman said as part of his ruling.
Gooch, Swafford and Jones would have qualified for the FedEx Cup playoffs but were suspended for playing LIV events without PGA Tour consent.
It is the first major court decision amid the year-long dispute between the PGA Tour and the new Saudi-funded LIV series.
Gooch, Swafford and Jones are among a group of 10 LIV players who have sued the PGA Tour. The group originally included 11 golfers, but Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz withdrew from the lawsuit on Tuesday.
