Rory McIlroy has refused to take the bait after LIV rival Talor Gooch questioned the legitimacy of major championship wins.
The four-time major winner from Northern Ireland, who can complete a career Grand Slam by winning April’s Masters, spoke on the eve of the first round of the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic at PGA National.
McIlroy was reacting to LIV 2023 golf season champion Talor Gooch’s comments to the Australian Golf Digest that criticized the Masters for not having more LIV talent due to the Saudi-backed upstart series not earning world ranking points.
“If Rory McIlroy completes his Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there will just be an asterisk,” Gooch told the magazine.
McIlroy said he wanted to give LIV player Talor Gooch “the benefit of the doubt.”
Rory McIlroy can complete career Grand Slam if he wins Masters in April
The Northern Irishman celebrates winning the Open Championship at Hoylake in 2014
“The Masters is an invitational tournament and they will invite whoever they think deserves it,” said McIlroy, who will play in the Cognizant Classic that begins Thursday at PGA National, the site of what used to be called the Honda Classic.
‘I think to be fair to Talor, if you read the whole thing, the question and then the answer, it’s not like he just said that. I feel like whoever did the interview led him down that path to say that, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt a little bit. He simply agreed with what the interviewer asked.
Gooch made the comment in Australian Golf Digest, published earlier this week. Gooch, who is not in the Masters field at the moment, presumably because his world ranking has plummeted since LIV events don’t count in that formula, said: “If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there will only be an asterisk. It’s just reality. I think everyone wins when the big leagues find a way to get the best players in the world there.
McIlroy, a three-time FedExCup champion, will play in the Masters for the 16th consecutive year. He lost a four-shot lead in the final round of 2011, played in the final group with winner Patrick Reed in 2018 and his best finish was runner-up in 2022, three shots behind Scottie Scheffler.
Gooch has played in the Masters twice. He tied for 14th in 2022 and 34th last year, and has won three times since he joined LIV.
But that wasn’t enough to merit an invitation. LIV’s Joaquin Niemann received a special invitation from Augusta National last week after winning the Australian Open in December, finishing fifth at the Australian PGA and tying for fourth at the Dubai Desert Classic, four shots behind McIlroy.
“I played with him a few weeks ago in Dubai, and he went to Australia and won,” McIlroy said of Niemann. He was in Oman last week. He’s been chasing himself all over the world to get this, make his way to Augusta, or show enough form to merit an invite. I don’t know if the same can be said for Talor.
If McIlroy wins the Masters, he would join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as those who have won the men’s lifetime Grand Slam.
McIlroy has offered countless comments about LIV and the golfers heading there in recent years, ranging from outrage (“I hate what it’s doing to golf. I hate it. I really do,” he said after winning the FedExCup in August 2022) until finally reaching a more conciliatory tone (“I can’t judge people for making that decision,” he said in recent months). When Rahm left for LIV in December, McIlroy told Sky Sports that he wanted the Ryder Cup eligibility rules rewritten because “I certainly want Jon in the next Ryder Cup team,” he said.
And on Wednesday, that cycle (someone says something to start something) probably continued. When McIlroy was asked for a response to his former agent Chubby Chandler’s recent suggestion that he might join LIV, the response: “Maybe he knows some things.” Who knows?’
It was difficult to gauge how serious McIlroy was at the time. Which seems about right, given how complicated this era of golf has seemed at times.
Players like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, all recent big winners, have joined LIV for highly lucrative deals in recent years and the PGA Tour has had to find new ways to remain competitive.
Talor Gooch questioned the legitimacy of major championship wins without LIV players
Earlier this year, the PGA Tour hired Strategic Sports Group as a minority investor for up to $3 billion, and it is still unknown whether it will eventually reach a deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Camilo Villegas, a former champion of what is now Cognizant and part of the PGA National field this week, was announced Wednesday as the new president of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council.
This means he will join the PGA Tour Policy Board for a three-year term starting January 1, and he said he is looking forward to taking on the role at a challenging time for the game.
“I think the game of golf is in an interesting situation,” Villegas said. ‘I think the rope is quite tangled. It is necessary to untangle it. It will untangle. How long will it take? We do not know. I wish we had a crystal ball. “I truly believe the game of golf will win.”