PGA Tour, banned golfers, head to court

The PGA Tour asked a federal judge in San Francisco to deny the appeal of three suspended players who joined Saudi-backed LIV Golf and now want to compete in the tour's lucrative postseason, arguing the players knew the consequences two months ago.

Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford are seeking a temporary restraining order. They are among 10 players who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour last week.

The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. today in San Jose, two days before the first of three FedEx Cup playoff events in the chase for the $18 million top prize.

The FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tenn., has a $15 million purse, and the top 70 players advance to the second postseason event in Wilmington, Del.

Gooch (No. 20), Jones (No. 65) and Swafford (No. 67) are among nine players who have joined LIV Golf and finished the regular season among the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings. The other six who joined LIV Golf are not asking to play in the tour's postseason.

In a court filing Monday to oppose the temporary restraining order, the tour argued antitrust laws do not allow the three players “to have their cake and eat it, too.”

Gooch, Swafford and Jones used the same phrase in separate, legal-heavy letters to tour officials last month in protesting their suspensions and claiming the regulations were onerous and kept them from playing elsewhere.

“I am a free agent and independent contractor. The Tour cannot have its cake and eat it too by trying to control me as one might an employee, while not providing me the rights and benefits an employee would receive,” each letter said.

The PGA Tour argued in its opposing motion, “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.”

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman said in a statement: “I believe players have the right to play when and where they choose so their talents can take them as far and high as possible.”

“I believe all players — whether they choose to play with LIV or the PGA Tour — understand and appreciate the purpose and importance of the players' legal actions, across the globe,” Norman said. “The PGA Tour is trying to cast this as `us' against `them.' The players know better.”

The three players were not among the highestsought players for Norman's rival league, though they were among the initial group of players who signed with LIV Golf. Gooch was the only one among the top 50 in the world, mainly from his only PGA Tour win last November.

“Plaintiffs have waited nearly two months to seek relief from the Court, fabricating an `emergency' they now maintain requires immediate action,” the filing said. “It doesn't.”

The tour contends players knew they would be ineligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs “when they accepted millions from LIV to breach their agreements” with the tour.

Players were not suspended until they actually teed off in a LIV Golf event.

The LIV Golf events, with a 48-man field, consist of 54 holes and offer $25 million in total prize money for each event. Seventeen players already have earned $1million or more in three or fewer events. Five more events remain on this year's schedule, and LIV Golf already has announced a 14-tournament schedule for 2023.

The next LIV event does not start until after the PGA Tour's season ends at East Lake in Atlanta with the FedEx Cup, which pays $18 million to the champion.

Even though LIV Golf players have been suspended, they remain eligible for the FedEx Cup bonus package. Anyone finishing in the top 125 gets $120,000. Those who finish inside the top 150, such as Pat Perez and Paul Casey, would get $85,000.

Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia are among LIV Golf players who chose to resign their PGA Tour membership. Reed is playing two Asian Tour-International Series tournaments this month.

Alabama No. 1 in coaches' football poll

Alabama was voted No. 1 in the preseason USA Today coaches' poll, with Ohio State second and defending national champion Georgia third.

The Crimson Tide received 54 first-place votes from a panel of 66 major college football coaches. Alabama is coming off a loss in the College Football Playoff title game to Georgia.

The Buckeyes received five first-place votes and the Bulldogs got six. No. 18 Texas also received a firstplace vote.

Clemson was No. 4 and Notre Dame was No. 5. Michigan, coming off its first CFP appearance, was sixth, followed by Texas A&M, Utah, Oklahoma and Baylor.

• A day after Oklahoma assistant head football coach Cale Gundy announced his resignation, the school said that Gundy uttered a racially charged word multiple times during a film session last week.

Gundy, who had been with the program as an assistant since 1999, announced his resignation in a social media post late Sunday, and the school confirmed it with a statement shortly thereafter.

Gundy — whose brother is Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy — was on staff for all 14 of the Sooners' Big 12 titles and the national championship season in 2000. He spent the last seven seasons coaching wide receivers.

Mercury's Taurasi out for rest of season

Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi will miss the remainder of the season with a quadriceps strain.

Taurasi missed the last two games with the injury and the team announced that the WNBA's all-time leading scorer will not be available as the Mercury fight for a 10th straight playoff appearance.

A five-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time WNBA champion, Taurasi averaged 16.7 points and 3.9 assists this season, her 17th in the WNBA.

Serena earns first win in more than year

Serena Williams earned her first win in more than a year, beating Nuria Parrizas-Diaz 6-3, 6-4 at the women's National Bank Open in Toronto.

It's just the second tournament of the season for Williams, 40, who returned to competition at Wimbledon just more than a month ago. The 23-time Grand Slam champion fell in the first round to Harmony Tan in three sets at the All England Club.

Before then, she last competed at the 2021 Wimbledon tournament, where she retired in the middle of her first match due to a torn hamstring suffered after slipping on the grass surface.

“I'm just happy to get a win. It's been a very long time, I forgot what that felt like,” Williams said.

Bruins bring back two former champions

The Boston Bruins are getting the gang back together, signing captain Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci — two members of their 2011 Stanley Cup championship team — to one-year deals.

Almost three months after he left the ice without any certainty that he would return, Bergeron signed a one-year deal with the Bruins. A few hours later, the team announced that Krejci, who played last season in his native Czechia, will also be back in 2022-23.

Bergeron got a $2.5 million deal with $2.5 million in incentives and Krejci gets $1 million with the potential for $2 million more. Bergeron is fourth on the Bruins' all-time scoring list with 982 points, and Krejci is ninth with 730.

Bergeron, 37, and Krejci, 36, led the Bruins to the 2011 NHL championship and two other trips to the Stanley Cup Final. Boston was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Carolina on May 14 and fired coach Bruce Cassidy three weeks later.

• The Arizona Coyotes signed restricted free agent forward Lawson Crouse to a five-year contract. Crouse had career highs of 20 goals and 14 assists last season, his sixth with the Coyotes.

Nets' Durant repeats request for trade

Kevin Durant has again told Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai that he wants to be traded, reiterating a request he first made nearly six weeks ago, the AP reported.

Durant also told Tsai that he has concerns about the Nets' direction under coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks, the AP reported

“Our front office and coaching staff have my support,” Tsai tweeted Monday night. “We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.”

Durant isn't a free agent; he has four years and $198 million remaining on his contract with the Nets.