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Eleven golfers now on the LIV Golf Series joined the lawsuit,
which challenges their suspension from the PGA Tour. Three of
the 11 - Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones - are seeking
a temporary restraining order to be allowed to participate in
the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin next week.
That trio qualified for the playoffs but were banned after
joining LIV, a competing circuit considered a direct threat to
the PGA Tour.
In addition, Abraham Ancer, Jason Kokrak, Carlos Ortiz, Pat
Perez, Ian Poulter and Peter Uihlein are listed along with
Mickelson in the lawsuit.
Multiple media outlets obtained copies of the lawsuit, first
reported on by The Wall Street Journal.
"As part of its carefully orchestrated plan to defeat
competition, the Tour has threatened lifetime bans on players
who play in even a single LIV Golf event," the lawsuit says. "It
has backed up these threats by imposing unprecedented
suspensions on players (including the Plaintiffs) that threaten
irreparable harm to the players and their ability to pursue
their profession.
"It has threatened sponsors, vendors, and agents to coerce
players to abandon opportunities to play in LIV Golf events. And
it has orchestrated a per se unlawful group boycott with the
European Tour to deny LIV Golf access to their members."
The FedEx Cup playoffs begin with the St. Jude Classic in
Memphis next week. The top 125 players are eligible to play -
except for those who opted to play in LIV events.
Gooch is No. 20 in points, Swafford is 63rd and Jones No. 91.
"Banning Plaintiffs and other top professional golfers from its
own events degrades the Tour's strength of field and diminishes
the quality of the product that it offers to golf fans by
depriving them from seeing many top golfers participate in Tour
events," the lawsuit reads.
"The only conceivable benefit to the Tour from degrading its own
product in this manner is the destruction of competition.
Indeed, the Tour has conceded its nakedly anticompetitive
purpose in attacking and injuring the players."
--Field Level Media
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