The PGA Tour has hit back at LIV Golf players hoping to compete in the opening FedEx Cup play-off at the St. Jude Invitational this week, amid the ongoing lawsuit between the tour and LIV rebels. A group of 11 players led by six-time major winner Phil Mickelson are challenging their suspensions from the PGA Tour, which they were handed after defecting to the Saudi-backed series.
Three of those 11 players - Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones - are attempting to to receive a temporary restraining order to allow to compete at TPC Southwind this Thursday. Prior to their exclusions the LIV trio had done enough on the golf course to earn a spot in the end of season play-offs.
In response the tour have fired back at the appeal accusing the defectors of 'fabricating an 'emergency’ they now maintain requires immediate action.'
In a statement the PGA Tour said: "Despite knowing full well that they would breach Tour Regulations and be suspended for doing so, plaintiffs have joined competing golf league LIV Golf, which has paid them tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed money supplied by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to procure their breaches.
"TRO plaintiffs now run into court seeking a mandatory injunction to force their way into the Tour’s season-ending FedExCup Playoffs, an action that would harm all Tour members that follow the rules. The antitrust laws do not allow Plaintiffs to have their cake and eat it too.”
The tour references Jones' own comments surrounding his decision to join LIV in their defence, after admitting 'you've got to expect it' when quizzed on whether he felt he would lose his membership on the PGA Tour. Accusing the LIV Golf defectors of violating 'the PGA Tour's Handbook and Tournament Regulations', the PGA Tour's lead counsel Elliot Peters said: "The players’ participation in the LIV league is in violation of the PGA Tour's Handbook and Tournament Regulations.
"For enormous sums of cash supplied by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Plaintiffs willfully breached their agreements with the PGA Tour. The players’ purported harm is entirely self-induced. We will litigate this case vigorously to preserve the reputation of the PGA Tour and protect the benefits it offers to players.”
