Talor Gooch has earned the most on the LIV Golf tour (Image: X/@SharkGregNorman)
Talor Gooch tops the highest-earners chart, bagging over £45million in prize money. The US ace made a splash in 2022, switching to the controversial tour just one year on from his debut RSM Classic success – and he hasn’t looked back since.
Gooch scooped for clinching the 2023 individual season title, and while his game has greatly improved since his defection, his clubs have not been the only ones .
The 33-year-old is one of the most outspoken players on the breakaway tour and has with some of the top names he’s left behind on the PGA Tour – namely Rory McIlroy, who before a Masters tilt in 2024.
“I met with the leadership within LIV and saw the vision they had for the game of golf on a global level, and seeing where golf could go and the growth it could potentially have,” Gooch explained when making the bold move.
Starting strong, Gooch took home £450,000 at the LIV Golf London event in 2022, followed by a victory as part of the 4Aces in Portland, where he didn’t shy away from a verbal tussle with the PGA.
“I haven’t played in a Ryder Cup or a Presidents Cup, but I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot of difference. This is as cool as it gets,” Gooch confessed after experiencing the atmosphere in Portland. His remarks didn’t end there.
In early 2024, two years post his Ryder Cup confession and one season after he bagged his $18m prize, the possibility of PGA poster boy McIlroy winning the Masters sparked a reaction from the US ace.
Gooch’s bank balance has massively benefitted from LIV (Image: Getty Images)
“If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his [career] Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there’s just going to be an asterisk. It’s just the reality,” Gooch told Australian Golf Digest.
Northern Irishman McIlroy has already secured the US Open, PGA Championship and Open Championship in his career, and a Masters title will complete the career slam. Gooch’s comments clearly irked him, but the 35-year-old gave his American counterpart the benefit of the doubt.
“The asterisk, look – The Masters is an invitational, and they’ll invite whoever they think warrants an invite,” McIlroy retorted. “To be fair to Taylor, 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.”
McIlroy didn’t massively hit back at Gooch (Image: PGA Tour)
In a remarkable development, Gooch received an invitation from the PGA of America to participate in the 2024 PGA Championship in May. He made the cut but concluded with a score of -4.
Gooch’s decision to defect has yielded notable improvements in his game. The 33-year-old’s career has skyrocketed since joining LIV, marking him as one of its genuine success stories.
“You know, I’ve always felt that I was good enough to be a professional golfer and play against the best in the world,” Gooch stated in 2023, having played arguably the best golf of his career. “And you know, now to be here too, I think to consider myself one of the best in the world.
“It’s what I’ve been dreaming about since I was nine years old. To get to this point in my career and to have this validating of a season, yeah, words can’t describe how much it means and just how satisfying it is.”