The Golf Majors Will Survive Despite Talor Gooch’s Bold ‘Asterisk’ Claim

We were treated to another of Talor Gooch Hot-Takes this month. Gooch claimed that Rory McIlroy’s Masters victory—if that happens this April—will come within an asterisk because it doesn’t include the world’s best from LIV Golf. It’s not clear which players he meant by that aside from himself. Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, and a handful of LIV golfers will tee up at Augusta next month.

Nevertheless, what Gooch hinted at was the diminished value of Majors without the top players in the field. Let’s zoom out for a second and look at the broader picture here. While the LIV Golf-PGA Tour battle has definitely made it harder for Majors to assemble top players, they have done a decent job since 2022. In fact, the Majors won’t lose their sheen for a handful of reasons in the near future as well. 

Majors have kept the doors open—for everyone

Gooch was perhaps emboldened by Joaquin Niemann’s Masters invitation. But here is the catch: Niemann wasn’t the only one to qualify for the Majors. David Puig recently earned his place at the Open Championship courtesy of his Malaysian Open victory. Dean Burmester qualified for the same after his victory at the 2023 JoBurg Open. Niemann also has seven top-ten finishes from his last ten outings after his victory at LIV Golf Jeddah.

Meanwhile, Talor Gooch’s last international event came in November, something that even McIlroy pointed out while offering Gooch a “benefit of doubt.” At the 2023 Hong Kong Open, Gooch finished tied for the 42nd spot. While Gooch and his wife welcomed their baby around January, in all fairness, the Oklahoma resident was never fond of teeing up at international events before. Since joining the Greg Norman-fronted side, Gooch has played only three events outside LIV Golf and the Majors.

This is also a reminder that the majors have existed irrespective of which ‘top’ player qualified or not. The U.S. Open was not postponed in 2011 because Tiger Woods was injured. The Masters didn’t stop last year because one of its most decorated players limped out. Wyndham Clark doesn’t have an asterisk because Talor Gooch wasn’t in the field. Neither will Brooks Koepka’s PGA Championship victory carry an asterisk because Gooch missed the cut.

So, why was Talor Gooch angry?

With the risk of playing the Devil’s Advocate here, the Oklahoma star had his reasons for his frustration. Gooch, the 2023 LIV Golf Player of the Year, was the ‘only one’ severely affected by the U.S. Open rule change last year. Of course, OWGR didn’t do enough to aid the cause of LIV golfers. 

But Majors, Gooch, and his colleagues believe they should have elevated themselves above the LIV Golf-PGA Tour divide. Which, in their defense, was never going to be easy. A radical decision would’ve inevitably read as LIV’s legitimacy from the high table of golf. Just like maintaining the status quo has raised calls for injustice from LIV!

Regardless, Augusta National offered some recourse through its Tour Championship criteria last year. On the other hand, the USGA made a subtle distinction as part of its yearly review policy. Unlike 2022, only “those players who qualified and were eligible for the season-ending 2022 Tour Championship” were eligible to tee up at the Los Angeles Country Club.

Gooch was seemingly the ‘only’ player affected by that. At least that’s what he believed. This was Gooch last year. “That was obviously disappointing because that changed rule only affected one person, which was me. 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.”

The Oklahoma Star didn’t go via that route, apparently as a form of protest. Sergio Garcia did, though, and earned his spot. He tied for the 27th spot. Augusta, too, has gone through similar changes this year. Regardless, Gooch believes that Majors should lift themselves above the fray, and unless they do so, there should be some serious questions about the status of the Majors. That is far from the case. The list of LIV golfers at this year’s majors is quite long.

Read More: Has Talor Gooch Ever Won a Major? His Career on PGA Tour Explored

With that, the situation remains what it was two years ago. Talor Gooch chose to join LIV Golf. The ensuing lawsuit was also a choice. Choices have consequences, as

Scottie Scheffler reminded us. This was the consequence for Gooch. It does “s**k,”  as Gooch said some time ago. But he should have known better.

Read More: 3 Most Controversial Talor Gooch Moments Explored