{"id":241760,"date":"2022-08-16T11:44:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T11:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/liv-golf-court-delivers-ruling-for-fedex-and-the-pga-tour\/"},"modified":"2023-02-10T13:41:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T13:41:12","slug":"liv-golf-court-delivers-ruling-for-fedex-and-the-pga-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/liv-golf-court-delivers-ruling-for-fedex-and-the-pga-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Court delivers for FedEx and the PGA Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>The FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis, the first of the three FedEx Cup playoff tournaments on the 2022 PGA Tour, was won by Will Zalatoris on Sunday. What happened before the action in Memphis got underway might be hailed as a win for the PGA Tour itself. (Albeit that might ultimately prove to be a premature description.) Three professional golfers \u2013 Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones \u2013 had sought to overturn a ban suspending them from the PGA Tour because they had joined LIV Golf, specifically because they wanted to play in the FedEx Cup playoff series which they had qualified for before they \u2018went rogue\u2019. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve played my way and I\u2019ve earned that right,\u201d said Gooch. Unfortunately for him, the court did not agree.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:pbc\/advert \/-->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"right\",\"textColor\":\"white\",\"fontSize\":\"small\"} --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>More on that in a moment, but you may be aware that the sporting entity formally known as LIV Golf is invariably, and disparagingly, called \u201cthe Saudi Golf League\u201d by Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour. He has resolutely refused to engage in any dialogue with its representative, be they Greg Norman or anyone from the league of Saudis. I was struck that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had meetings at the end of July with Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi president widely believed to have ordered the murder of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, on the basis that for him \u201cto have an influence and tackle the problems that European countries and France face [regarding energy shortfalls] the only way is to talk with all of our partners\u201d. I understand that the use of the word \u2018partners\u2019 could not be less applicable in this golfing context, but to refuse even to talk does seem high-handed at best.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":225517,\"sizeSlug\":\"full\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\"} -->\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-225517\" src=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/monahan-1-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Ruling - LIV Golf - PGA\" \/>\r\n<figcaption>PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"right\",\"textColor\":\"white\",\"fontSize\":\"small\"} --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>However, Monahan right now will likely feel vindicated by the hardline stance he has taken. Last Tuesday evening in San Jose, Judge Beth Labson Freeman found emphatically in favour of the PGA Tour. \u201cIt appears to the court the LIV contracts negotiated by the players and consummated by the parties were based upon the players\u2019 calculations of what they would be leaving behind and the amount the players would need to monetize to compensate for those losses. I agree with the defendants that those losses were well known to the players at the time and clearly monetized.\u201d In other words, they knew what they were doing.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:pbc\/advert \/-->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"right\",\"textColor\":\"white\",\"fontSize\":\"small\"} --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>She added that \u201cthe evidence shows it seems almost without a doubt they will be earning more [with LIV Golf] than they have made and could reasonably have expected to make in a reasonable period of time [on the PGA Tour}. Therefore, I find that the plaintiffs have not established irreparable harm.\u201d In other words, they were seeking compensation for making more money.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>LIV Golf issued a statement which said: \u201cWe are disappointed that Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones won\u2019t be allowed to play golf. No one gains by banning golfers from playing.\u201d Of course, they are not banned from playing golf; just from doing it on the PGA Tour. And Judge Freeman had already addressed Norman\u2019s repeated assertion that professional golfers are independent contractors. \u201cThese LIV contracts lock up players in a way the PGA Tour never imagined,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are so restrictive<a href=\"\/open-championship-2022-yes-cam-do\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">.<\/a>\u201d In other words, the life of a LIV golfer is less about \u201cfree agency\u201d than lavishly rewarded servitude.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>But \u2013 a big but \u2013 this is far from the final play in the legal process, and the matters under scrutiny in the months, maybe years, to come will be considerably more wide-ranging than the situation of three particular golfers in one particular scenario. Hey, but it\u2019s all going to make a load of lawyers very happy!<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p><strong><em><strong><em>You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/f-factors.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">f-factors.com<\/a> plus you can read more by him on golf at <a href=\"http:\/\/robertgreengolf.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">robertgreengolf.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Players didn not suffer irreparable harm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":241908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9324],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.3 (Yoast SEO v23.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ruling - LIV Golf - PGA Tour - Golf Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ruling - LIV Golf - PGA Tour. Three players had sought to overturn a ban suspending them from the PGA Tour because they had joined LIV Golf,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/liv-golf-court-delivers-ruling-for-fedex-and-the-pga-tour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court delivers for FedEx and the PGA Tour\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ruling - LIV Golf - PGA Tour. 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Monahan announced that the tournament will proceed without fans starting on Friday. The policy will continue through the Valero Texas Open. 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Three players had sought to overturn a ban suspending them from the PGA Tour because they had joined LIV Golf,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/liv-golf-court-delivers-ruling-for-fedex-and-the-pga-tour\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/liv-golf-court-delivers-ruling-for-fedex-and-the-pga-tour\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/liv-golf-court-delivers-ruling-for-fedex-and-the-pga-tour\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/monahan-1-scaled-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/monahan-1-scaled-2.jpg","width":1024,"height":576,"caption":"PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan speaks at a news conference at the The Players Championship golf tournament, Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Monahan announced that the tournament will proceed without fans starting on Friday. The policy will continue through the Valero Texas Open. (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/liv-golf-court-delivers-ruling-for-fedex-and-the-pga-tour\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Court delivers for FedEx and the PGA Tour"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/","name":"Golf Today","description":"Golf News and Lifestyle","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/d078c054b641020d284ec35935d374b3","name":"Robert Green","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/robert-green-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/robert-green-96x96.png","caption":"Robert Green"},"description":"Robert Green is a former editor of Golf World and Golf International magazines and the author of four books on golf, including Seve: Golf\u2019s Flawed Genius. 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