Australia's Matt Jones and two fellow LIV Golf players won't be allowed to play in the PGA Tour's lucrative FedEx Cup playoffs following a ruling by a federal judge in California.

Jones, Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford lost their case for a temporary restraining order which would allow them to take part in the playoffs, which start in Memphis on Thursday.

They would have qualified for the playoffs based on their PGA Tour points position had they not been suspended for playing LIV events without the tour's consent.

The trio argued the tour's suspension was causing them "irreparable" harm.

US District judge Beth Labson Freeman sided with the PGA Tour, which had filed a filed a motion in federal court to keep the trio from competing in the playoffs and argued that the players were trying "to have their cake and eat it too".

"LIV contracts are based upon players' calculation of what they were leaving behind," Freeman said as part of her ruling.

Freeman made her decision in San Jose after attorneys for the sides each spoke for about an hour.

Freeman said she didn't consider the golfers faced irreparable harm because of the big money they were guaranteed by joining LIV, a key issue in the case.

Jones, Gooch and Swafford are among 10 players who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour last week, including Phil Mickelson. They claimed they should be able to play where they want to, each saying in letters last month to the PGA Tour, "I am a free agent and independent contractor."

Robert Walters, an antitrust litigator representing the trio, noted this would be their opportunity on a big playoff stage, "effectively the Super Bowl of golf" because of its "significant income opportunities."

Freeman responded that the LIV Tour earnings potential was also great and asked whether players might have been able to wait until the conclusion of the PGA Tour season to depart for the new tour.

Walters argued there were only 48 spots and they would have filled up according to LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, to which Freeman said she agreed with that stance but that the golfers stood to gain far more financially joining LIV than the money they might have earned on the PGA Tour.

"This is an extraordinarily attractive financial opportunity but it's much more than that," Walters said, saying the harm done is that "players lose intangible benefits" such as qualifications for the major tournaments as well as other marquee invitationals.

"This is the holy grail because everybody wants to compete in and prevail in major championships, but it's not just the majors," Walters said.

PGA Tour attorney Elliot Peters said lifting the suspensions of the golfers and allowing them to play would "change the status quo" for the PGA Tour and "give them a fabulous platform" to promote the LIV tour while competing in a PGA event.

"I think it's a huge problem," he said. "... The Commissioner needs the ability to protect the Tour. This is a very dire situation for the Tour."

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.

with Reuters