Returning to one of his most successful stops on the LIV Golf calendar, Smash GC captain Talor Gooch steps back onto familiar ground in Adelaide. An individual champion here just a few seasons ago, Gooch reflects on past triumphs, leadership, and the confidence that comes with proven success.
What does this event mean to you, and how excited are you to be back here in Adelaide again?
TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, this event will always hold a special place in my heart. It was my first win out here on LIV. For all of us players that have been here from the beginning, this is kind of the event that we feel kind of really kicked us off and kind of shot us in a really good direction.
Obviously the fans are incredible. The tournament is incredible. The golf course is always in incredible condition.
It’s always great to be back here. A little bit bittersweet that this is the last time we’ll be here at this course, so hopefully we can end with some good memories.
Q. Team sports are obviously hugely popular around the world, and that’s certainly the case here in Australia. As a new team captain of Smash GC, can you just talk about your mindset as a captain and the camaraderie that exists with this year’s lineup with Smash?
TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I grew up playing team sports. I love the locker room. I love being with the boys. I love when we’ve had a good round and we’re in the locker room after kind of talking and celebrating, and I love when we’ve had a tough round like the last Saturday in Riyadh we didn’t play great, didn’t have a great day, but we were all there and kind of picking each other up.
It’s an honor to be able to lead this team, and we have four, I think, really good players, really good dudes. We all get along really well. It’s an easy group to hang out with.
It’s a blast, and most importantly, we all want to win. We all want to compete. It’s pretty motivating when you’re looking at each other and you’re seeing how much work they’re putting in and how much they want to do well for each other, right?
It sounds cliche at times, but winning is great, but winning with your team is greater, plain and simple.
Q. 2023 was just an amazing year; you came back and won last year. How many times are you going to win this year, and can you tell us which ones, just to give us the inside word?
TALOR GOOCH: Man, I’m just going to win the rest of them. I’m just going to win the next 13, 12 events, whatever we’ve got left. I’m going to win them all.
Winning is so hard out here. Look at the guy who’s probably played the best golf out here the last couple years, Jon Rahm. He’s played unbelievably well but he hasn’t won a whole lot.
I think that really exemplifies how hard winning is. At this level, when you win, you just need some luck. You need things to go your way. When you win, you need to cherish it because you never know when the next one is going to come.
I would love to get a win here this week and kind of rekindle some of the 2023 good vibes, and that would be amazing.
Q. Talor, can you talk about the infusion of youth into LIV Golf? Obviously you were an original member here in 2022. Elvis wins last week; he’s 23 years old. You see all the other young guys. There’s kind of been an evolution of how the roster has switched up in the last few years.
TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I played with Elvis in the final round. What an incredible golfer and such a good kid. 23 years old is crazy to think about. I was not nearly as mature as he is when I was 23 and not nearly as good of a golfer as he is.
It’s awesome seeing such young great golfers. It’s incredible, since I’ve turned pro, how much better these dudes are when they turn pro than what we were 10 years ago when we turned — it’s unbelievable the shift in that.
Obviously Puig and Surratt and McKibbin and these dudes out here are so good at such a young age, it’s overly impressive. And motivating, too. I don’t want to lose to a kid that wasn’t born in, like, significant life events. It’s like, you’re so young, you weren’t around when — coming off a Super Bowl, it’s like, you don’t know who Kurt Warner was. You don’t know who these guys — it’s crazy to think about how young some of these guys are. It’s motivating. You don’t want to lose to this young pup.
It’s definitely driving and motivating to want to beat them, but it’s also awesome to see, and you cheer hard for them, too. You see how hard they work out here.
Yeah, it’s awesome. Really if you look at the spectrum of things, you see a 23-year-old Elvis that just won, and the first time I had met him was this last week, and to see him putting all the time in, and he’s literally 30 years younger than some of the other guys out here.
To see the full spectrum of things, it’s incredible. It’s a tribute to this game. I think it’s a tribute to how — it’s so awesome to see how hard everybody works out here and how much discipline and diligence everybody has.
Everyone every week feels like they’re fighting their nuts off to win each week. Partly because we don’t have 25, 30 events, so each week is paramount. It’s so important that, like, you want to take advantage of each week. You don’t want to have a lapsed week where you don’t really put the time in. You’re just like, on to the next one. We can’t afford to take weeks off mentally.
It shows when you’re here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and you see everybody putting all the work in.
I got a little off topic, but yeah, seeing all the young kids, it’s awesome, man.
Q. Going back to 2023, backing up a 62 with another 62, that doesn’t happen all that often in golf. How special — when you look back at that, that was a really special moment, those two rounds, really, back-to-back.
TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I mean, I’d be lying if I said I think I’ll do that again in my career. I’d be curious in professional golf how often that’s happened. It was definitely one of those weeks, and those two days in particular, everything felt so easy. It’s like, you wish you could just bottle up how easy golf was for those two days and sprinkle it through the rest of your career because golf is just not that easy, but for whatever reason those two days it was really, really easy, and I’m very jealous of that; I wish I could do that more often.
Q. Running the clock back and reuniting with 2023, stablemate Harold Varner III, what’s he bringing to the new Smash GC, sort of the Smash GC under you, and are you guys going to get up to any mischief while you’re down in Adelaide?
TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, we might have had a little fun yesterday with the Super Bowl and watching some football and maybe a couple of adult beverages. Like I said, the four of us get along so well. Obviously anybody who knows Harold, he is a lightning rod of energy. It’s easy to smile when you’re with him and be in a good mood.
He’s the one that when things are tough and golf is not good, he’s going to be able to keep us smiling and enjoying ourselves.
But he doesn’t show it as much as the fun, go-lucky guy. He’s competitive as can be. We landed at 12:30, 1:00 in the morning or so Sunday night/Monday morning, and he and I were out here at 7:00 a.m., six hours later.
He’s competitive as can be. It’s just great having him on this team, and I think we’re going to play a lot of good golf, and we’re going to have a lot of fun.
Q. World ranking points, now 72 holes. A few years ago when you were in hot form, it was all over the media that you spoke about how the majors should be accessible to everyone who’s in good form in world golf. What does that mean to you? You just missed out on the points last week. How much has that changed your approach for the 2026 year?
TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I mean, for us, obviously the majors are the driving factor. Like how do we get into the majors, and the OWGR is one of those routes.
I have to go play great golf, plain and simple. We all have to go play great golf to get into the majors and then hopefully to play great in the majors.
At the end of the day it doesn’t really change things. I’m still working my butt off. I’m still trying to play great golf. It’s just now there’s another opportunity to get into the majors, which is great, and hopefully those opportunities and pathways continue to expand and become more ample for us.
Q. You spoke in really strong terms last week about LIV needing to hold its identity, not stray too far from what it was about. On that note, is there any angst about the potential for any other departures if it continues to stray, and what would be your message to any colleagues who are perhaps considering their future or coming off their contracts?
TALOR GOOCH: I mean, none of us really think about that. Like I said, we have 14 weeks out here that we are trying to take advantage of, right. That’s our focus. If you’re worried about what other people are doing, your mind is in the wrong place.
I know everybody that I talk to is obviously over the moon excited to be here, and specifically this week in Australia and excited for this opportunity. Like I said, we have 14 great opportunities, and with the world ranking and majors and things kind of softening up on all of those fronts and kind of the ecosystem starting to accept us slowly but surely, I think it’s going to continue to make this place more and more enticing for people.
Everyone is excited. There’s obviously some frustrations with us not getting the whole pie, let’s just say. But you know what, at least we got some pie and let’s keep trying to get some more pie.
Q. Family is obviously important to you, obviously with the work you do with your foundation and things like that. How do you juggle family life when you’re on tour, and do they come with you often?
TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, what we do, it’s so unique as a job. The awesome thing is we actually have an off-season now. I have two kids. I have a four-year old girl and then a two-year-old boy, and my girl was born when I was still playing on the PGA TOUR. I had extended time away from her early in her life.
I had to learn early, like, how does this work, how do I continue to balance chasing my dreams and trying to become the best golfer I can be and go try to accomplish all these goals while also keeping my family my priority.
It’s super challenging. Thankfully I have an incredible wife that is the absolute rock of our family that when I’m away from home like last week and this week — thank goodness for FaceTime. I don’t know how dudes did it 30 years ago doing this life. It’s hard to fathom.
But yeah, I have such a great support system, so when I’m away, I can still stay in touch, and I know everything is good. Then when I’m home, I can really be home. Like I said, having an off-season, we were off for a few months, and it’s — I cherish that time.
That’s one of the great things here about LIV is having an extended off-season.
Q. Do you want to give us a quick snapshot of the foundation and the good work you’re doing there and what drives you to do that?
TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, my wife and I for years, we just wanted to give back. How can we make an impact, how can we make a difference back home in our community. So we started a foundation in 2021, and we’ve raised millions of dollars, and we really do — it’s kind of three pronged. We want to continue to help junior golf in Oklahoma, state of Oklahoma. We want to give kids an opportunity to play tournament golf, whether they can afford it or not. We want to open up those opportunities for golfers to chase competitive golf. We want to get more kids into golf.
There’s a few things that we do through that, but golf has been such a blessing to me, but it’s not my only thing. It’s not the most important thing in my life.
We don’t want to just continue to focus strictly on golf and junior golf. We’ve partnered with a few different organizations back home such as Positive Tomorrows, which is a school for homeless kids from six months all the way until they’re 12 years old, and what they do in Oklahoma City is incredible. Whether these kids are living under a bridge or at a cousin’s house or whatever the case may be, the school is able to go and locate and find these kids, bring them to school, go pick them up, clothe them, feed them, educate them, socialize them and try to get — if parents are still involved, try to lift them up and get them on their feet from job interviews and clothing and just helping the families.
That’s an organization we’ve done a lot with. We’ve bought and purchased school buses and clothes and supplies.
Then the other organization we’ve really invested in is called Hope is Alive, which is an addiction rehabilitation organization back in Oklahoma and throughout the States now. They’re in 12 States back in the United States.
It started in Oklahoma, and they have houses all throughout the state that they bring people dealing with addiction in and hem rehabilitate them through Christ. It’s incredible what they do.
You talk about the word “legacy” has been used a lot in the last few years in golf, and I hope I win all the tournaments I play, and I hope I win all the majors and all the great things, but more importantly to me, my legacy is going to be how many lives have we impacted, and that’s always going to be through our foundation and through what we’re doing there.
It’s absolutely a focus of me and my wife and our foundation, the people involved. It’s an everyday effort for us and focus and something we’re really proud of. It’s the good stuff, man.
At the end of the day, like I say, I want to make birdies. I want to be great. But when you see kids back home that don’t have a home, birdies become irrelevant. So how do we help — especially in my community. How do I help my community. That’s what we’re going to continue to focus on.
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