LIV Golf's Talor Gooch still hopeful of Ryder Cup spot despite Open woes

04 August 2023 , 12:17

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LIV Golf's Talor Gooch still hopeful of Ryder Cup spot despite Open woes

Talor Gooch has not given up on making the United States Ryder Cup team despite failing to impress captain Zach Johnson at last month's Open Championship.

Gooch has emerged as a candidate to make Johnson's 12-man team despite languishing down the Ryder Cup standings. Half of the American team will be made up of six automatic qualifiers, with the other six selected via the captain's selections.

Whilst he sits all the way down in 86th in the rankings, an impressive season on the LIV Golf setup has seen the American star move into contention for a spot in Rome.

Gooch has been the man to catch on the breakaway circuit this season, winning three times in Adelaide, Singapore and more recently Andalucia.

The 31-year-old will have hoped this would have been enough to catch Johnson's eye, but will have known a strong performance at The Open was required to get himself into deeper contention.

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This did not come though, as the LIV star struggled in Hoylake, shooting seven-over-par across his first two rounds to miss the 36-hole cut by four shots. Two weeks on from his week in Merseyside Gooch returns to action in hunt of a fourth victory at LIV Golf Greenbrier.

Talor Gooch has three LIV wins this season (AP)

Ahead of the event, the RangeGoats star is still hoping to 'sway' the opinion of selectors. Asked his thoughts on his Ryder Cup chances, he said: "I think that what I think doesn't matter for it unfortunately. So I'll just continue to play good golf and let the people whose opinions matter, hopefully we can sway them a little bit."

One man who does believe Gooch should be heading to Rome is his LIV teammate Harold Varner III. Varner added: "I think that's a tough question. No s*** he wants to play on the Ryder Cup team, and some people think he should be on the team. But if he's playing, I would say yes every time. Who doesn't want to represent their country?

"He's playing absolutely great golf, so I think it's a great question, but also I think it's kind of hard for him to sit here and be like, yeah, I don't think I should be on the Ryder Cup team. You know what I mean? I think that's very difficult."

Joshua Lees