Rick Shiels has shared the news which has shocked him ahead of the PGA Championship at Valhalla this month.
The PGA Championship is rapidly approaching on the horizon, with many of the world’s best preparing to head to Kentucky for the second major of the year.
Of course, many will be expecting Scottie Scheffler to triumph again after his relatively comfortable victory at The Masters last month.
Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka goes into the event as the defending champion. The American has won the event three times previously, and, ominously for his rivals, clinched victory at LIV Golf Singapore last week.
Rick Shiels shocked as Talor Gooch receives PGA Championship invite
Obviously, whenever a major comes around in this day and age, much of the talk centres around the players not involved, with many of the biggest names absent from the event amongst those signed up to LIV Golf.
Talor Gooch was one of those who did not play at The Masters, and he caused quite a stir when he revealed that he had no intention to try and qualify for a place at the US Open later this year.
Gooch won three times on LIV last year, so he is certainly amongst the world’s best right now.
And it seems that the PGA Championship has recognised this by offering the 32-year-old an invite to Valhalla.
However, perhaps not everyone was not expecting Gooch to be included in the field, with Rick Shiels telling The Rick Shiels Golf Show that he is not entirely sure that he has done enough this year to get the call.
“It’s just come as a surprise. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve it, or does deserve it, I’m just very, very shocked considering he won so many times last year. He won two of his events before the PGA Championship last year, and won one of them after. I don’t know,” he said.
American has point to prove at Valhalla
Gooch’s major championship record is not the most impressive, with the American missing the cut in two of his three starts last year. He was one of those who did not make the weekend at Oak Hill.
Obviously, Gooch’s world ranking is not reflective of his current standing within the game. So it will be fascinating to see how he fares against the best of the PGA Tour.
In fairness, he does have three top-10 finishes on LIV this season. But he has not been able to replicate the amazing form that he showed last year.
It would certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons if Gooch could put himself right on the leaderboard at Valhalla now that he has received an invite.
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