Golf fans rip into Talor Gooch after LIV man handed US PGA *invite

LIV Golf's Talor Gooch has been invited to the 2024 PGA Championship days after causing a stir with his comments about trying to get into the majors.

Ben Smith

06 May 2024

Talor Gooch has been handed an invitation to the forthcoming PGA Championship.

Gooch took to X on 6 May to confirm he will be headed to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky over 16-19 May.

"Looking forward to the PGA Championship next week," he wrote.

"Thanks for the invitation @PGA, see you there."

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Gooch is not the only LIV player to have been handed a shock invite.

Spanish outlet Ten Golf also reported on Sunday that highly-rated Spanish youngster David Puig is also in the field.

Puig is 106th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

This is important because, typically, the PGA of America only invites the top 100 players in the world.

Gooch has fallen to 644th in the rankings and therefore this represents a significant olive branch to players from the breakaway tour.

With Puig and Gooch in the field, LIV will be represented by 11 players at the second major of the year.

That's two fewer than the 2024 Masters.

Gooch is undoubtedly very talented and was LIV's 2023 individual champion.

He won three LIV events and his form led to some suggestions that he could have been handed a shock captain's pick for the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Gooch has mainly attracted interest for his comments off the course about LIV players' struggles to get into the majors.

Memorably, he faced a huge backlash after suggesting that if Rory McIlroy completed the career grand slam then, potentially, others could look at the feat with an asterisk.

"If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his grand slam without some of the best players in the world, there's just going to be an asterisk," Gooch said.

"It's just the reality.

"I think everybody wins whenever the majors figure out a way to get the best players in the world there."

Gooch also attracted some heat before LIV Golf Singapore, which was won by Brooks Koepka, for revealing he had absolutely no plans to try and qualify for the 2024 Open at Royal Troon and the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

The news that Gooch has received a PGA Championship invite has been met with mixed responses.

Understandably, there are some that believe his invite is more than merited.

Others aren't so happy.

"Not earned but cried for," one X user wrote.

"If Blockie beats you, you should retire for life," another added.

This person twisted the knife: "Going to be hilarious when 'the best iron player ever' doesn’t even make the cut."

That comment was in reference to the audacious claim from LIV commissioner Greg Norman.

Gooch played in three majors in 2023.

He missed cuts at The Open and PGA Championship and finished T-34 at the Masters.

To date, his best finish ever in a major came in 2022 at Augusta National where he posted a top-15 finish.

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