LIV Golf members Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones will be barred from playing in this week’s St. Jude FedEx Cup tournament after losing their temporary restraining order case in court Tuesday in San Jose, California.
U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman heard the case and ruled in favor of the PGA Tour, which had filed a motion in federal court to prevent the three suspended players from competing in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
LIV players against PGA, verdict
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 her 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. Matthew (Matt) Jones (born 19 April 1980) is an Australian golf professional who currently plays on the US PGA Tour and the Australasian PGA Tour.
Before becoming a golf professional in 2001, Jones was a good golf amateur, but did not achieve any victories. In his early years as a golf pro, he played on the Nationwide Tour, a training golf tour of the American PGA Tour, and has not won any victories to date.
In 2007 he finished in seventh place on the Nationwide Tour and was awarded a playing card for the PGA Tour. In early April 2014, he achieved his first professional victory by winning the Shell Houston Open. He won the playoff from Matt Kuchar.
