2025 has proven to be a brilliant year for Rory McIlroy and after finally landing The Masters, it’s worth a check back at his little spat with LIV Golf’s Talor Gooch the year prior.
Back in 2024, Gooch suggested that should McIlroy win at Augusta National, then there would be a blot against it due to the amount of LIV Golfers not involved.
“If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there’s just going to be an asterisk. 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,” Gooch said at the time.
Of course, McIlroy wouldn’t win the 2024 event but he did win in ’25, completing the career grand slam in the process.
As for Talor Gooch, he’s still over the LIV tour and hasn’t actually played in a major since finishing T60 at the PGA Championship in ’24.
What Rory McIlroy said about Talor Gooch’s Masters comments
One thing a lot of the top golfers in world do is not shy away from having an opinion.
One man who certainly doesn’t hold back is Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman wears his heart on his sleeve and in response to Gooch’s comments last year, he very much had his say in return.
“The Masters is an invitational, and they’ll invite whoever they think warrants an invite,” McIlroy quipped. “I think to be fair to Talor, if you read the entire…the question and then the answer, it’s not as if he just came out with 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 there a little bit. He just agreed with what the interviewer asked.
“I played with him a few weeks ago in Dubai, and he went down to Australia and won,” McIlroy said of Niemann. “He was in Oman last week. He has been chasing his tail around the world to get this, play his way into Augusta or show enough form to warrant an invite. I don’t know if the same can be said for Talor.”
McIlroy, of course, has enjoyed tremendous success since this mini ‘spat’ with Gooch.
However, the same cannot be said of the LIV Golf star.
Talor Gooch’s form since his comments on Rory McIlroy
Talor Gooch is a fine golfer when he gets it going and his move to LIV was a big capture for them.
However, since his comments on McIlroy in early 2024, it’s not like he’s gone on to dominate.
As mentioned, Gooch has played in just one major since then and he flopped in that as well, while he’s only managed a single win over on LIV in that time as well.
2024’s LIV season saw him card four top tens but he couldn’t convert, before finally in July of this year Gooch got that win he needed.
Still, it’s nothing compared to McIlroy, who has won a major, The Players, the AT&T at Pebble Beach and multiple other titles – including another Ryder Cup – along the way.
As for the ‘asterisk’ comment, well, that’s Gooch’s opinion but ultimately McIlroy has The Masters and Grand Slam title and Gooch doesn’t.
Indeed, given his form and lack of major appearances, he’s not going to get anywhere near McIlroy anytime soon either.
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