Justin Thomas daggers LIV Golf pro ahead of Players Championship

Justin Thomas made it clear before teeing it up at the Players Championship he's a bit tired of the PGA Tour-LIV sideshow.

But that didn't stop the American aiming a cheeky dig towards Talor Gooch ahead of golf's 'fifth major'. 

Of course this week there is an awful lot of talk about the strength of the field at TPC Sawgrass owing to the absent LIV players. 

Thomas defended the strength of the field, telling reporters: "I mean, it's still been the best field in golf for many previous years.

"You could always make an argument that there's other tournaments that are or are not.

"The PGA Championship has been the deepest field in terms of the most top 100 players, and I'm not just saying that for selfish reasons, it's just the truth.

"I know what you mean in terms of world ranking and guys that are or aren't on the Tour anymore, but that's just kind of the reality - and what they have put themselves in.

"And, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to have an asterisk next to my name for winning this because the field wasn't too good, right?"

The asterisk comment is a clear reference to Gooch's eyebrow-raising claim a few weeks ago. 

Whilst criticising the lack of major exemptions on offer for LIV golfers, Gooch made an interesting claim about Rory McIlroy. 

He said: "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.

"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 was inside the top 40 when he joined LIV Golf in 2022 but has now tumbled to 498th in the world rankings. 

LIV have now officially abandoned their pursuit for Official World Golf Ranking accreditation. 

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"It's not the same fatigue"

The aforementioned McIlroy made it clear to reporters the continued divide in the men's game is causing fans to lose interest.

Unsurprisingly, Thomas agrees but believes the current state of affairs is totally different to 2022 when LIV launched. 

"It's not the same fatigue that I felt probably like six months or a year into it, when it was so new that nobody knew what was going on," he said.

"And all anybody could talk about in the locker room was what was going on. Like, that was annoying, to be honest, to me.

"I've just tried to kind of remove myself from most of the conversations because I just don't -- I haven't found the benefit to it.

"I'm just, I don't want to say hoping for the best - that sounds kind of hopeless - but just trying to remember or help look at the bigger better things going on kind of thing."

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