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Judge rules three LIV players will not be permitted to join FedEx Cup playoffs

The battle between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour has reached the first of what will surely be many courtrooms.

U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman heard arguments from attorneys representing both the PGA Tour and a consortium of eleven LIV-affiliated players on Tuesday afternoon. Three LIV players — Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones — were seeking a temporary restraining order that would permit them to compete in this week's tournament, the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

However, after a two-hour hearing, Judge Freeman ruled that the players had not proven that they would suffer "irreparable harm" if they were not permitted to play. Accordingly, the LIV players will not be in the field this week or the rest of the PGA Tour playoffs.

The players' temporary restraining order was only one part of a much larger lawsuit that the LIV players, led by Phil Mickelson, have brought against the Tour on antitrust grounds. That suit charges that the PGA Tour has engaged in anticompetitive behavior and coerced other entities in the golf world — the four majors, various vendors, courses — to shun LIV and its players. The Tour has responded that it is protecting the interests of its members — the players — by keeping walls high against players from competing tours seeking to, in the Tour's oft-repeated words, "have their cake and eat it too."

The FedEx St. Jude Classic, the first event of the three-event FedEx Cup playoffs, starts Thursday. The next LIV Golf event is scheduled for early September in Boston.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Contact Jay Busbee at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @jaybusbee.