Two years ago, Talor Gooch won three times on the LIV Golf circuit and took home the season-long individual title over superstars like Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, and Brooks Koepka.
Greg Norman, the outspoken CEO and Commissioner of the Saudi-backed series at the time, even went as far as to say Gooch was "the best iron player in the game of golf in the past 20 years that I’ve personally witnessed."
Although that was ignorant hyperbole, Gooch was playing great golf. Now? Not so much.
The 33-year-old entered Monday's U.S. Open qualifier at Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas, Texas, hoping to punch his ticket to Oakmont Country Club next month.
He needed to finish in the top seven to qualify for the season's third major, but after going 1-over through his first 15 holes, Gooch just walked off the course and quit.
It's not as if the Oklahoma native was totally out of it, either. The U.S. Open qualifier is a 36-hole event, so he still had 21 holes left to make a run up the leaderboard. Given how things played out, Gooch would've had to finish at 7-under to get into the playoff for the final spot, but ultimately decided he didn't feel like gutting it out.
LIV Golf sucked the competitive fire out of Talor Gooch
Unfortunately, this is what LIV Golf's endless buckets of cash has turned some players into.
The one-time PGA Tour winner has earned more than $62 million on the Saudi-backed tour, and that doesn't even include the reported eight-figure signing bonus he received just for joining. The competitive fire was still in his belly when he won the individual title in 2023, but his game has gone downhill since banking $38 million that season.
Gooch finished the 2024 season with just two top-10 finishes in his last eight starts and began the 2025 season with results of T44, T51, solo 49th, and T29 in his first four events. And remember—these are tournaments with only 54 players in the field, many of whom are washed-up has-beens and peripheral players who couldn't make it on the PGA Tour.
Gooch built up some momentum with a solo third-place finish at LIV Golf Korea, but it all evaporated at his embarrassing U.S. Open qualifier performance.
He's played in only one major championship since 2023, finishing in a tie for 60th at the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla. He obviously won't play in this year's U.S. Open in June and likely won't qualify (or even attempt to qualify) for The Open Championship in July, but he doesn't seem to care anyway.
As long as the checks keep clearing, Gooch will seemingly be content with the state of his golf career.