Despite Recent Setback, Is Talor Gooch Playing at the 2023 PGA Championship

The 105th PGA Championship will take place this year from Thursday, May 18, through Sunday, May 21, with the East Course of Rochester, New York’s Oak Hill Country Club, hosting the tournament. The PGA Championship, which is regarded as having the strongest field of the entire year, invites twenty PGA clubs rather than amateurs like the other majors. But this year, Talor Gooch is currently on a high with his recent back to back wins, will he be eligible to play the upcoming tournament?

Last year, Justin Thomas triumphed at Southern Hills. This year’s lineup will have him in the lead. Following his stunning triumph at The Masters in early April, Jon Rahm will undoubtedly be the player to defeat. Former champions and LIV Golf defectors Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Martin Kaymer, among others, will also be playing. Other LIV Golf players who will be on the field include Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, and Bryson DeChambeau.

Will Talor Gooch be playing the 2023 PGA Championship

Talor Gooch has been the best golfer for the past two weeks, with his exemplary performances. The LIV Golf star became the first golfer to win back-to-back LIV competitions and bagged an incredible $8 million in prize money. He also won the PGA Tour in 2021 before defecting to LIV Golf. Now with the PGA championship on its way, in order to qualify, a player must have at least one of the last five U.S. Opens or Masters victories, be a former PGA Champion, or be in the top three of the OWGR standings.

Gooch has only triumphed in four competitions, including two in the PGA nemesis LIV. He never had a victory at the PGA Championship, the Masters, or the U.S. Open. Even though it required a lot of golf talent for him to win back-to-back LIV tournaments, OWGR still treats him differently. Gooch dropped two spots after winning the LIV Golf Adelaide after being rated 57th earlier. However, following his victory in Singapore, he was further downgraded to the 60th rank.

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Gooch has performed admirably in the past LIV events, and this truly paid off. Last season on the PGA Tour, even though he couldn’t complete the season, he played well enough to qualify for the Tour Championship. The 31-year-old, though, has now tweeted out that he has received his invite from the PGA of America. “Just got my invite to the PGA Champ,” Gooch said on Twitter. “Now just in a position where I can play well and get in that top 60. Wish this wasn’t the case, but not an unfamiliar place.” “

Gooch won’t be competing in the U.S. Open

There was a slight but significant change in the language from prior years when the U.S. Golf Association issued its qualifying requirements for the U.S. Open in February. Changed to “those players who qualified and were eligible for the season-ending 2022 Tour Championship” from “those players qualifying for the season-ending Tour Championship.”

This is bad news for Gooch. Since he left for LIV Golf in June of last year, he has been unable to participate in the Tour Championship; as a result, he is no longer “eligible.”

“That was obviously disappointing because that changed rule only affected one person, which was me,” Gooch said. “So that was frustrating and tough because with LIV still not being rewarded with World Ranking points, I have only two options to qualify for the U.S. Open: via my World Ranking, which is going to be very challenging, or trying to obviously go through the qualifying route of sectional qualifying.”

Gooch won’t be able to compete in the U.S. Open, but how well he does in PGA Championship only time will tell. What do you think about Gooch’s position? Let us know in the comments below.

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