A year ago, Talor Gooch made some heads turn when he compared LIV Golf to the Ryder Cup.
LIV Golf’s Talor Gooch backs off controversial Ryder Cup comments hoping to catch Zach Johnson’s ear
Talor Gooch compared LIV Golf team events to the Ryder Cup in the past, but now he is walking back those comments to a degree.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
“I haven’t played a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, but I can’t imagine there’s a whole hell of a lot of difference,” Gooch said in July 2022. “This was as cool as it gets. We’ve been saying it all week. The energy is just different; it’s awesome.”
Now he is walking back those comments, although he does not regret making them.
“Look, it was said in the heat of the moment,” Gooch told The Telegraph, an English outlet. “My teammates and I had just collected $750,000 each for winning the team event at LIV Portland, and it was one of the rowdiest crowds I’ve ever seen.”
“But yes, there is no doubt that we all dream of playing the Ryder Cup, which is different from LIV. I won’t say that I regret saying it. I’ll just comment that I was in the moment.”
Understandably, Gooch was fired up after winning in Oregon.
The former Oklahoma State Cowboy had just one PGA Tour victory before defecting to LIV and has yet to record a top-10 at a major championship.
He had not experienced much success in the professional game before LIV.
So he went to the Saudi-backed tour because it was “a business decision,” something he told Golf Digest in Sept. 2022.
But now, Gooch is one of the best players on the LIV Golf circuit, and he hopes Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson has taken notice.
“It’s the [USA] versus Europe,” Gooch told The Telegraph, an English outlet. “You’ve just got to hope the people making decisions aren’t just eliminating one side because of everything that’s happened.”
So far in 2023, Gooch has won LIV Golf events in Adelaide, Singapore, and, most recently, at Valderrama in Spain.
His performance caught the eye of fellow LIV golfer Bubba Watson, who made his stance known on Gooch’s place on the Ryder Cup team.
He likely will not make the American Team at this year’s Ryder Cup in Italy due to the continuing divide in the professional game, but Gooch is playing better than ever.
Do you think Gooch has done enough to warrant a selection? Let us know in the comments below.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
