LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm makes Talor Gooch plea amid controversial ‘major’ complaint

Ahead of this week’s LIV Golf event in Hong Kong, Jon Rahm stuck up for Talor Gooch, who made some controversial remarks recently.

Talor Gooch turned the heads of everyone in the golf world with his controversial remarks about Augusta National.

But these comments stemmed from his disdain for the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).

“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,” Gooch said.

“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, who has played well ever since joining LIV Golf at its onset in 2022, is currently ranked 476th in the OWGR.

Yet, everyone knows he is a better player than that, and Jon Rahm agrees.

“I think there’s one player who played fantastic all last season who’s been a little bit left out, and I’m not saying that they all have to, but I think Talor Gooch should be under consideration to possibly get an invite into those majors,” Rahm said ahead of this week’s LIV Golf event in Hong Kong.

Photo by Peter Parks/Getty Images

“He was the best player out here last year, and if that doesn’t show good golf and being worthy of being in majors, I don’t know what does.”

Unlike Joaquin Niemann, arguably the hottest golfer on the planet right now, Gooch has not received a special invite from The Masters. The U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, and The Open have not extended themselves either.

Still, Rahm sees some progress in the four majors related to Niemann’s cause.

“Isn’t that what we all want to see? Yeah, it’s very encouraging,” Rahm added.

“I’m very happy to see [Niemann] get invites. To be fair, he’s shown an interest in wanting to qualify many different ways and has played the way you’re supposed to play, so I think it’s only right that he gets invites.”

Niemann won the Australian Open in December, finished fourth at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January, and finished third in Oman on the Asian Tour in February. Plus, he has two LIV Golf victories under his belt in 2024.

“I agree with everything [Rahm] said,” said Bryson DeChambeau, who spoke alongside Rahm during a session with the media in Hong Kong.

Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images

“There just needs to be a clear path through LIV in some capacity. The most important thing is the fans, and engaging the fans in a way that only helps enhance the experience of golf around the world and even in the States. Whatever that answer is, we need to come to it pretty quickly because we don’t want to continue down the path that we are currently on.”

Plenty of LIV golfers have taken issue with the OWGR, mainly because the OWGR board denied world ranking points to the Saudi-backed circuit.

But so, too, have PGA Tour members, as numerous top players agreed with LIV golfers at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“I think the World Rankings has a very particular set of criteria, and I don’t know if broken is the right word, but there’s been so much uncertainty and change in the last couple of years that it’s inevitable that things need to be updated or changed,” Patrick Cantlay said Tuesday.

Something needs to change.

Perhaps that could be reflected by using DataGolf as the genuine rankings. Matt Fitzpatrick admitted to relying on this system, just as many other golf fans, pundits, and players have done so. It has proven worthy.

DataGolf has Niemann as the 12th ranked player in the world, while the OWGR has the Chilean ranked 76th.

“If anybody in this world, for example, doesn’t think [Niemann] deserves to be in the top 10 or doesn’t know that he’s a top player in the world, I don’t know what game you’re watching,” Rahm added.

“We can tell. I think anybody who watches golf can tell who the best players in the world are, and obviously, I don’t think the [OWGR] is reflective of that right now in its entirety.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.