LIV Golf’s Talor Gooch will play in at least one major this year. He announced Monday on social media that he has received an invitation to play in the PGA Championship next week.
The PGA of America is not expected to release the full field until Tuesday as it waits to hear back from all players who have received invitations to Valhalla.
Gooch’s invitation is significant because he rarely plays outside of the LIV Golf schedule. His invitation was based purely on his performance in the Saudi-funded league. Gooch won three times at LIV last year and topped his list of points.
Kerry Haigh, PGA of America championship director, has said for the past two years that the committee would consider tour players from around the world.
“We looked at every list,” Haigh said in March. “If the players deserve it, we hope to invite them.”
The PGA of America said last month that Joaquin Niemann had received an invitation. Niemann also received a special invite to the Masters — Augusta National cited his Australian Open win without mentioning his LIV victory in February.
Gooch said last week in Singapore that he had no intention of joining the 30-plus LIV players who plan to try to qualify for the U.S. Open. LIV events do not offer world ranking points and he has dropped to 644th in the world.
Gooch had just one PGA Tour title before fleeing to rival LIV in 2022.
He is among LIV’s most outspoken players, once comparing a team’s victory to the Ryder Cup. He said earlier this year that if Rory McIlroy were to win the Masters and complete a career Grand Slam, it would have to come with an asterisk for cause of all the LIV players not in the Masters field.
Gooch currently sits 8th in the LIV Golf standings with two top-5 finishes in eight tournaments this year in the 54-player league competing over 54 holes.
He played in three majors last year, tying for 34th at the Masters and missing the 36-hole cut at the PGA Championship and British Open.
David Puig, from Spain, should also receive an invitation, due to playing outside of LIV Golf. Puig won twice on the Asian Tour and had three other top-5 finishes last year.
Other LIV players under consideration are Louis Oosthuizen and Dean Burmester, who each won twice in South Africa late last year in tournaments co-sanctioned by the European tour.
The PGA Championship is known for having the strongest fields among the four majors. Traditionally it invites all of the world’s top 100, although this is not part of the published criteria. In this week’s top 100 is Patrick Reed, who played every major tournament up until the 2014 Masters.
___
AP Golf:
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
