Jack Nicklaus, 83, Gets Dragged Into Talor Gooch’s War Against the PGA Tour as the LIV Golf Pro Reveals His Lofty ‘Major’ Goals

Can you tell how many majors Jack Nicklaus won? How many Masters? Great! But can you name any of his 73 PGA Tour titles? Or, how many weeks the Golden Bear was the world No.1? Talor Gooch can’t either, and that’s what he wants you to remember: that PGA Tour wins and World No. 1 are of little value.

Gooch was speaking with Jerry Foltz and Su-Ann Heng at the ‘Fairway to Heaven’ podcast. What then matters to the golfer, if not having the world at his feet? Well, first of all, the 2023 LIV Golf champion considers OWGR rankings as “nonsensical”, and secondly, Majors are more important than a few weeks at the OWGR throne.

Talor Gooch has loftier benchmarks

OWGR deems LIV Golf’s format unsuitable for receiving world ranking points. As a result, Talor Gooch, who ranked as high as 31st, now sits at the 324th position in the OWGR table. But Gooch doesn’t “care about being considered the number one player in the world by, you know, a certain group of people.”

Gooch asked, “How many years would Jack (Nicklaus) have been the number one ranked player in the world if they had had a system back then?” Interestingly, Nicklaus, too, never cared. When the 18-time Major winner completed his career Grand Slam, he was not ranked the best player in the world. Still, that didn’t put a dent in his major glories, and that’s what the LIV Golf pro wants to hammer home.

Ironically, Gooch’s sentiments echo those of LIV Golf critics, who have bashed the league for its lack of chances for legacy building. But Talor Gooch believes LIV Golf pros might have a chance to build lasting legacies if the governing bodies allowed them to. Given a chance, Talor, the Oklahoma native, would want to take a shot at the Majors once again. Because “major championships are what they talked about.” The 32-year-old adds further, “That’s what trumps everything.”

The LIV golfer sure does not seem to care about the OWGR, and has expressed his stern remarks on the matter! But the official authorities of certain major tournaments sure give a significant weightage to the world rankings. Despite all odds, Gooch’s faith in the authorities persists!

Gooch hopes to see authorities take bold steps

Unfortunately, for the LIV Golf Pro, Augusta and the PGA do care about the OWGR standings, which makes him ineligible for the Masters and the PGA Championship. However, both the USGA and the R&A hold qualifications for the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. Curiously enough, Talor Gooch didn’t take part in the qualifier earlier and appears averse to the idea now as well.

Read More: Despite His Towering LIV Golf Success, Talor Gooch Has Not Forgotten the ‘Broke’ Days of His Career: ‘Grind Your B**t Off’

Instead, Gooch feels that governing bodies should take bold steps by opening the doors for LIV golfers. “I still have some faith and hope that these entities are going to see that.” But as of now, Talor Gooch has to wait and watch if the merger talks yield any change of policy for the governing bodies.

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