While the most important thing to come out of the federal court hearing in San Jose, California, was that Judge Beth Labson Freeman wouldn’t grant a temporary restraining order to allow three LIV Golf players to compete in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, there were several other nuggets discussed Tuesday that are worth another look.
LIV golfers Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford had requested the temporary restraining order that was denied. They would have earned enough points in the season-long FedEx Cup qualifying to have made the playoffs, but they won’t be allowed to tee it Thursday in the FedEx St. Jude Championship after Judge Freeman ruled that their Tour suspensions would stand, at least for now.
From the amounts the players were paid by LIV Golf, which is apparently eye-popping for the judge but were redacted and not verbalized in detail, to the fact that some other players might have misled the media and fans in past interviews about how their contracts and winnings mesh, there is plenty to dissect. Let’s take a look.
More: PGA Tour responds | Golf Twitter reacts | LIV Golf’s response
No irreparable harm
Robert Walters, front, an attorney representing three LIV Golf players, leaves a federal courthouse in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. A federal judge has ruled that three golfers who joined Saudi-backed LIV Golf will not be able to compete in the PGA Tour’s postseason. (AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Judge Freeman said in her ruling that there was no irreparable harm to Gooch, Jones and Swafford because they will not be allowed to compete in the playoffs.
From the opening of the hearing, the judge pointed out that irreparable harm would need to be proved by the plaintiff golfers for her to allow them to compete and thereby change the status quo, which is that they are suspended by the PGA Tour. Without irreparable harm, they had no justification for a temporary restraining order to compete in the Tour events.
Judge Freeman also repeated several times that money alone would not be grounds for finding irreparable harm, because money can be paid later if the ensuing lawsuit by LIV golfers against the PGA Tour goes in those golfers’ favor.
The plaintiffs’ lead attorney who presented their case Tuesday, Robert Walters, argued that the FedEx Cup playoffs are an elite series of events. The players would be harmed from future earnings – and possibly the opportunity to…
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