LIV Golf pro in major no man's land? "That's going to suck"
LIV Golf's individual champion Talor Gooch says it's 'going to suck' if he doesn't get the opportunity to play in the four major championships in 2024.
LIV Golf's 2023 individual champion Talor Gooch says 'it's going to suck' if he doesn't get the opportunity to play in the four majors next year.
Gooch joined the rival league last June and had a slow start to life on the breakaway tour in its inaugural 'beta-test' season which comprised of seven individual events and a team championship.
His best finish was sixth alongside four other top-10 finishes in the 48-man field events.
Since then Gooch has been in simply stellar form and he picked up victories in Adelaide, Singapore and Andalucia.
It could have been even better had he defeated Brooks Koepka in a playoff in Jeddah.
Still, it wasn't all bad as he picked up a $18m bonus for being the league's player the year. Overall, Gooch has made more than $35m in 2023.
In less than two years he has already made more money on the course than the likes of Ernie Els, Jason Day and Zach Johnson have in their entire PGA Tour careers thus far.
Yet Gooch is now in major no man's land.
The 31-year-old played in the Masters in 2023, tying for 34th, and missed cuts at the PGA Championship and the Open.
LIV have officially been denied Official World Golf Ranking accreditation.
Gooch, who was once ranked 31st in the OWGR, has now fallen to the World No. 214.
There are opportunities for Gooch to improve upon his ranking via circuits such as the Asian Tour, but it appears an impossible task to qualify into next year's majors via world ranking at this point.
"You know, being able to play in the majors, it's the pinnacle of golf," Gooch told reporters.
He added:
Gooch said the situation is 'out of my control' and he hasn't been told of anything 'behind the scenes' that will provide clarity on LIV's major problem.
"Nobody has told us anything," he said. "So yeah, we are all kind of in the dark on it, so we'll see."
It is not just Gooch who faces an uncertain future with the majors.
Joaquin Niemann is also in the same boat. Once ranked 19th in the OWGR, he has now fallen to 68th.
Niemann played every major for three years but for the first time he will be staring at the prospect of not playing in any in 2024.
"These guys have already won majors," Niemann told the media before the season-ending team championship in Miami, standing alongside Koepka and Phil Mickelson.
He added: "For me, it’s kind like right in between because I don't have the world ranking right now, but I know I have the game to be competing on the majors and be winning majors.
"So it's been kind of hard not having the option of being in the majors right now. I mean, trying to figure out what I could do to get into the majors knowing that I don't know what's going to happen next year, if they are going to give spots to LIV players."
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