Talor

Gooch

Talor Gooch was born in Midwest City, Oklahoma, in November 1991. While the life of a professional golfer has taken him to destinations around the US and the world, his home is still in the place where he was born.

The unusual spelling of his first name is a family quirk on his mom’s side. Names have often been spelled differently to their traditional form, which is why he is Talor rather than Taylor Gooch.

Gooch is unashamedly proud of his Oklahoma roots, and has made it clear the Sooner State will always be his home. He told Forbes magazine: “It’s just really friendly and inviting with warm people. It’s a great place to raise a family.

“As this world gets kind of crazier and crazier, I still think Oklahoma hasn’t lost its marbles yet. We have great food. We have a great culture. We have great college sports. We have great lakes.

“I could go on and on about Oklahoma. It’s still kind of a hidden gem for a lot of people. I’m proud of it.”

Not surprisingly, when he left his local high school he headed to Oklahoma State University. He had already shown an aptitude for golf when he won a US Kids Golf World Championship at the age of nine, and his good work carried on in college.

Gooch was named a first-team All-Big 12 pick in his junior year at OSU, when he also tied for second place at the US Collegiate Championship. Life as a professional golfer beckoned, and he duly joined the pro ranks in 2014.

Success did not come quickly or easily for Talor Gooch. He told the LIV Golf podcast Fairway To Heaven about a difficult moment at Q School – a qualifying tournament for professional golf tours – when he thought he might have to go to work at a local convenience store. He recovered that day to qualify and never looked back.

Gooch had been playing on the PGA Tour Canada in 2015 and 2016, but his recovery in that qualifying tournament earned a place on the Web.com Tour in 2017.

His first pro victory, at the News Sentinel Open, helped him to finish high enough on the money list to make it to the PGA Tour for the following year.

He played solidly and consistently at the top level over the next three years, and scored a maiden PGA Tour win in late 2021 when he took the RSM Classic in Georgia with a three-stroke victory. In the same year, he tied for fifth at The Players Championship.

That helped him to 31st place in the world rankings in early 2022, his highest spot on the OWGR so far. In the spring, he recorded his best Major finish to date when he tied for 14th at the Masters.

By now he was on the radar of the team putting together the initial roster for the LIV Golf series that launched later that year.

Talor Gooch bought immediately into the concept behind LIV Golf when he was in discussions with the organization.

He said: “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. That was only possible with change.”

Gooch believed many more people across the globe could become golf fans with a more expansive and inclusive offering.

He added: “We’re in the entertainment business. We’re not heart surgeons. We have to think about the fans, that has to be at the forefront of how we make decisions.”

As he put it, once he grasped LIV Golf’s vision, he thought: “This is something that’s going to draw people and this is something I want to be a part of because this is the future of golf at a professional level.”

Gooch hit the ground running in that momentous summer of 2022, recording top-10 finishes in all of his first four events. He was 11th on the overall leaderboard that year.

Talor Gooch switched teams before the 2023 LIV Golf season, and it was in the colors of RangeGoats GC that he swept all before him with a remarkable run of results that year.

In the fourth event of the year in Adelaide, he took charge with back-to-back rounds of 62 and, despite a 73 on the third day, won by three strokes from Anirban Lahiri. Gooch said afterwards: “It was cool to dig deep and get the job done.”

Just a week later, he tasted glory again in Singapore to become the first man to win LIV Golf tournaments back-to-back. It was much closer this time, and Gooch prevailed in a playoff against Sergio Garcia with a birdie at the second extra hole after the pair tied on 17-under.

Gooch said of his sensational form: “You have to savor these moments and try to remember them so that, when they go away, you can really get back as quickly as possible.”

But they didn’t go away. Three events later he won again, this time at legendary Spanish venue Valderrama, to become the first three-time LIV Golf tournament victor.

Gooch finished one shot ahead of Bryson DeChambeau and spoke from the heart as he looked back in the aftermath of victory at his long road to the top. He said: “I always had the belief that down the road if I put the work in, week in week out and month in month out, good things would happen.

“It’s been a journey, years and years of hard work and sacrifice by me, my family, my wife, my coach, my trainer and everyone involved. It’s not by chance that this is happening but I’m forever grateful that it is.”

The best year of his career ended on a high as he clinched the LIV Golf Individual Championship with a second place in the final event in Jeddah. 

He said: “You’ve got 48 of the best players in the world, with some legends and some current great players, majors champions.

“When you’re playing all kinds of courses across the world in different climates, in different parts of the world and back home in the States and everything over the span of a season – to beat everybody over the course of that, it speaks volumes to the quality of golf that you’ve played.”

Talor Gooch is a creature of habit on the golf course. He always chats on his cell phone to his father Ron just before teeing off for a round, he writes the Oklahoma area code 405 on his golf balls, and on the green he marks his ball with a quarter that dates back to the 1960s.

But he also admits that he plays with a chip on his shoulder. He revealed after winning the 2023 individual championship: “I’ve gone under the radar, if you will, which is fine. For me, it’s a driving factor… yeah, I like the chip on the shoulder.”

Which helps to explain why he struggled to contain his disappointment at not being invited to play in the 2024 Masters. 

He said: “Hopefully the day will turn when the Majors decide to start rewarding good play on LIV. Hopefully that’ll be sooner than later.”

He added: “I think everybody wins whenever the Majors figure out a way to get the best players in the world [at those events].”

Talor Gooch and his wife Ally have been married since 2019 and have a son and a daughter. Their house is in his home town of Midwest City, and Gooch appreciates the fact that the lighter LIV Golf schedule gives him more time to spend with his family in his beloved Oklahoma.

He said: “My priorities as a human and a father are always going to come ahead of my career in golf, and fortunately I have a wife and family who are extremely supportive.

“I saw early in my career so many families that didn’t get to spend as much time together and missed birthdays and births… I value so much the time I have. I want to make the most of it and spend as much time as I can with my family.”

He has a connoisseur’s taste for fine wine, which dates back to a course he took at Oklahoma State.

He said: “It started to open my mind to this whole new world. 

“Little did I know that a class that I thought was going to be just an added skill would become a very expensive hobby!”

Gooch is the owner of the Oklahoma Wildcatters, a team in the state’s professional bull riding series. He said: “It’s a blast to be a part of. It’s a crazy world, but it’s fun.”

He and Ally run the Talor Gooch Foundation, which funds a range of good causes. One is Positive Tomorrows, a school for homeless children. Another is a partnership with Hope Is Alive, which helps people trying to overcome addiction. He also supports the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour, for budding players aged 12 to 18.

Talor Gooch was a brand ambassador for Callaway before moving to LIV Golf, and the

brand’s clubs still feature prominently in the bag carried by his Australian caddie Mal Baker.

He currently favors the Ping G430 LST driver, but uses Callaway’s Epic Speed Triple Diamond three-wood and Big Bertha Alpha 815 hybrid.

Gooch plays with the Callaway X Forged UT, CB and Apex MB irons, and the company’s Jaws MD5 wedges, while he putts with the Odyssey Tri-Hot 5K Two, and like many pros he uses the Titleist Pro V1 ball.

By the end of 2024, Talor Gooch was at the very top of the earnings list from the first three years of LIV Golf. His consistent play, and three individual victories in 2023 – not to mention his individual title in that year – meant he had collected nearly $56.5million.

His net worth has also been swelled by more than $9.2million in prize money thanks to his PGA wins and other high finishes.

The world rankings may be the key to entry to Major championships, but they mean less to Talor Gooch as he approaches the task of being the best golfer he can be.

“I want to win tournaments, I want to win Majors, I want to be the best player in the world,” he said. “I just want to win.

“I didn’t grow up dreaming of being the No.1 guy on the OWGR, I grew up dreaming of winning on the PGA Tour and winning Major championships.”

He will undoubtedly continue to challenge for LIV Golf honors, and it will be fascinating to see if he gets opportunities to translate his excellent form into more traditional tournaments.

For now, though, it is safe to conclude that the man from Oklahoma is doing so much more than OK.