07 March 2024 , 16:55
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Jon Rahm believes Talor Gooch should be in the field for this year's Masters, after Gooch questioned the integrity of the tournament's field at Augusta National due to a number of LIV Golf stars missing out.
Gooch was the man to catch on the LIV setup last season, winning three times before becoming the breakaway league's season-long champion. Despite his impressive form, the American was unable to gain any points in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), amid LIV's wait for OWGR recognition.
This has seen Gooch tumble down the world rankings list, as he currently sits 476th, ensuring he will miss all four of this year's major championships, including the Masters.
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The defending champion Rahm however, believes his fellow LIV star deserves a place after Joaquin Niemann was handed an invite by Augusta bosses. "I think there's one player that played fantastic all last season that's been a little bit left out," Rahm said ahead of LIV Hong Kong this week.
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"And not saying that they all have to, but I think Talor Gooch should be under consideration to possibly get an invite into those majors, as well. He was the best player out here last year, and if that doesn't show good golf and being worthy of being in majors, I don't know what does.”
Gooch had his own say on the matter last month, but raised eyebrows after questioning the legitimacy of the event. In particular, he claimed a victory for Rory McIlroy - who is gunning to complete the career Grand Slam in Georgia next month - would come with an 'asterisk' due to the current state of the world rankings.
Talor Gooch will not feature at the Masters (Khalid Alhaj/MB Media/Getty Images)"If Rory Mcllroy goes and completes his Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there's just going to be an asterisk,” Gooch told Australian Golf Digest. “It's just the reality. I think everybody wins whenever the majors figure out a way to get the best players in the world there.”
McIlroy was quizzed on the comments ahead of last week's Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach, Florida, and whilst he sympathised with Gooch, he did highlight the American's lack of attempts to earn ranking points elsewhere, compared to the recently-invited Niemann, who is also a LIV Golf member.
"The Masters is an invitational and they will invite whoever they think warrants an invite," he said. "I think to be fair to Talor if you read the entire question and the answer it’s not like he just came out with that. I feel like whoever did the interview sort of led him down that path to say that so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt there a little bit. He basically just agree with what the interviewer asked.
"But at the same time Joaquin Niemann got an invite and I played with Joaquin in Dubai a few weeks ago and he went down to Australia and won. He was in Oman last week. He’s been chasing his tail around the world to play his way into Augusta or show enough form to warrant an invite and I don’t know if the same can be said for Talor."