1 week Ago By Charlie Wilson
LIV Golf player Talor Gooch told Rory McIlroy that winning the Masters - with potential players not in the field due to their situations with the PGA Tour scoring system - would be met with an asterisk . Huge questions had arisen heading into the 2024 Masters over whether LIV Golf players would be allowed to play, with many of the biggest stars in the breakaway league not having enough points to qualify for the tournament automatically. Instead, they would have to be invited to play in the tournament, which was the case again this year.
But is would be McIlroy going on to win his first ever Masters at Augusta National and finally secure his Green Jacket and grand slam. Speaking ahead of the 2024 Masterst though, LIV Golf star Gooch argued to Australian Golf Digest: “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.
I think everybody wins whenever the majors figure out a way to get the best players in the world there.” "Look, the Masters is an invitational and they'll invite whoever they think warrants an invite,” McIlroy told Golf Week in February 2024. “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." 12 LIV golfers received invites to this year’s Masters, with seven of them being previous champions in Jon Rahm, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, and Charl Schwartzel.
Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Tyrell Hatton, Cameron Smith, and Joaquin Niemann had also been invited and played at Augusta this year, with DeChambeau being in contention to win before struggling on the final day. A handful of LIV players missed the cut on Friday at the halfway stage. Johnson was one stroke shy of the two-over marker, with Garcia a further shot behind.
Mickelson, Koepka, and Smith had all ended the first two rounds with a score of five-over. Koepka remains one of the better current players to have never won a Masters. **Want to watch more live sports? Peacock has your favorite sports, shows, and more all in one place.
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