ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – When Talor Gooch was interviewed after being a member of the Four Aces team in the LIV Golf Invitational Series at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon, he said one of the most moronic things ever uttered at a professional golf tournament.
He compared the vibe at the LIV event to a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, biennial competitions that, well, his countryman have wept like babies in defeat despite there being no purse on the line.
Social media quickly dubbed Gooch “the stupidest man in golf” and he conceded on Friday, after shooting 3-under 69 and improving to 7-under 137 at the midway point of the 150th Open, that he’s received some good-natured ribbing from his fellow pros.
“A bunch of players came up, and they’re like, ‘Really? Really? 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.’ ” Gooch 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 to share the funniest comment, he thought for a moment and 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.”
Gooch, a 30-year-old former Oklahoma State University golfer and one-time winner on the PGA Tour, was in the midst of a breakthrough season and had risen to a career-best No. 31 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He confirmed that he only intended to play the first LIV Golf event. Then he was suspended by the PGA Tour for violation of its regulations and claims that he was caught by surprise even though the Tour had threatened it would do just that.
“Historically the Tour has not done that,” Gooch explained. “So based on the history, that was my expectation.”
Give Gooch credit for at least realizing that a trip to The Old Course was worth the hassle of traveling overseas with his wife and 1-year-old daughter so they could experience the Home of Golf as a family.
“There’s nothing better. It’s the mecca of golf,” he said noting they walked through the town, enjoyed a few pints of beer and stopped by the grave of Old Tom Morris.
Gooch is one of a handful of LIV Golf defectors who is in contention so far, and he said it has served as fuel to their fire.
“Everybody, it feels like, is against us, and that’s OK,” he said. “It’s kind of banded us together.”
Gooch hadn’t read the R&A’s comments that it reserved the right to change its qualification criteria for future Opens, which might force him to play in opening qualifying in the future, but he said those decisions will be determined by others smarter than him.
“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,” he said. “Hopefully this won’t be my last one.”
