American Talor Gooch claimed LIV golf rebels have been banded together by the “flak” for joining the Saudi-backed breakaway tour.
And the world No.40 claimed the LIV challenge at the 150th Open proved “the quality of players” on the circuit. Gooch shot a second round 69 yesterday to climb up the leaderboard at St Andrews.
Former world No.1 Dustin Johnson also started his second round strongly along with Sergio Garcia while Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Abraham Ancer are also in contention. Gooch has been suspended by the PGA Tour for joining LIV Golf while the R&A this week threatened to make it more difficult for LIV players to qualify for the Open.
The American, who shot rounds of 68 and 69 on the Old Course. said: “I think there's some strong players, no doubt. The credentials of everyone speaks for themselves. It's obviously cool for me to see other guys that are out there playing well. We've caught a lot of flack for what we've done here recently.
“I think one thing that cannot be questioned is the quality of players that are there. Have we been galvanised at all at some of the things that have been said this week by the R&A? Yeah, for sure. Everybody, it feels like, is against us, and that's okay. It's banded us together, I think.”
If LIV events are not allowed to offer ranking points, players will struggle to qualify for the Majors - and Gooch’s second Open could be his last.
“I mean, it would be a cool one to go out on,” said the 30-year-old. “Hopefully not, though. I'd like to think that the majors would like to have the best players in the world playing in their events in spite of everything that's going on, but obviously that's not up to me. It's up to other people. Hopefully this won't be my last one.”
Gooch, banked $580,000 for finishing ninth at the first LIV event at The Centurion Club. And when his team won the team event in the second event in Oregon he said: “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. This was as cool as it gets. We've been saying it all week. The energy is just different, it's awesome."
Gooch was roasted on social media and he admitted: “A bunch of players came up, and they're like really? Really?,” he said.
“I was like, hold on a second, guys. Give me a little break. I just won. I was in the moment. I might have gotten a little aggressive with the comments. No, I mean, like I said, it was just I was in the moment with them. We were pumped. I watch F1. I was so pumped to be able to spray champagne like they do in F1. I was in the moment. Maybe a little aggressive of a comment. Rightfully so, I've taken a little bit of heat for it.”
Asked for the funniest comment made to him, Gooch said: “I don't know if I can say it out loud. It's everything you could expect. This dumb kid from Oklahoma, blah, blah, blah. You're never going to blah, blah, blah. It's been everything you can imagine. Hey, that's all right.”
