IN THE NEWS
LIV Golf’s Talor Gooch believes that if Rory McIlroy achieves his long-standing ambition of completing a Career Grand Slam at The Masters this year, the achievement could be diminished because some of the best players in the world are not in the field.
As things stand, Gooch, who won three LIV Golf events in 2023 to become the individual champion, will be excluded. The American is currently 449th in the world rankings, and without an invite, the only other route for him to tee it up at the April tournament would be to reach the top 50 the week before – something that’s pretty close to impossible given his LIV commitments and limited scope for starts in events that award world ranking points.
“Hopefully the day will turn when the Majors decide to start rewarding good play on LIV. Hopefully that’ll be sooner rather than later,” he told Australian GolfDigest. “If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there’s going to be an asterisk. It’s just the reality.”
Gooch’s comments faced widespread criticism online, with numerous people hitting back at the 32-year-old. Golf journalist Dan Rapaport, known for his appearances on Netflix’s Full Swing, took to X to post: “Think there are 12 LIV guys in the field at Augusta. So what Talor Gooch really means is there’d be an asterisk on Rory’s win because Talor Gooch isn’t in the field.”
Fellow American journalist Shane Bacon wrote: “Just realised we gotta put an asterisk next to the 1997 Masters win and the 2000 US Open win be
