Rocco Mediate has hit out at Talor Gooch after the American suggested that Rory McIlroy winning The Masters would be tainted because not all of the world’s best players would be playing at Augusta.
Of course, Talor Gooch made those comments as he is one of the stars of LIV Golf who will not be teeing it up at the first major of the year.
Obviously, a number of LIV players will be there, with Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia amongst the past champions. Meanwhile, Joaquin Niemann was one of the players to receive a special invite by The Masters.
One of the main storylines going into the tournament will be whether Rory McIlroy can complete the career Grand Slam.
That would cement his place as one of the game’s all-time greats. However, Gooch suggested recently that there would be an asterisk against McIlroy’s win – should he get across the line – because of the names who will not be there.
It is safe to say that those comments have not gone down too well with Rocco Mediate. The 61-year-old – who famously lost a play-off to Tiger Woods at the 2008 US Open – suggested on Sirius XM that Gooch has no right to make those comments.
“Please – he just needs to be quiet and go about his business, take all the money and that’s fine, but just stop it,” he said. “You can say something about Rory? Are you kidding me? Are you absolutely kidding me?
“It’s embarrassing. LIV should be going, ‘Dude, you need to shut up. Shut up. We’ll handle this. We’ll handle it,’ and they will. But all the guys that should be at Augusta National, guess what? They will be.”
Mediate does make a good point. There are, on paper, arguably only a handful of names who should probably be there who will miss out. Gooch is one of them, particularly after his second place finish in Las Vegas. But the large majority of the world’s best will be there.
Perhaps it may become a problem further down the line when so many LIV players do not automatically quality. But it will not be a major issue this year.
And frankly, it is hard to imagine McIlroy caring one bit what Gooch thinks if he wins the Green Jacket in April.
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