Earlier this week, LIV golfer Tarah Gooch made headlines by claiming that if Rory McIlroy wins the Masters this year and completes the Grand Slam, it should get an asterisk.
Unsurprisingly, these comments sparked a ton of backlash from players and fans alike.
But McIlroy himself took a different approachstill delivered a quality power punch.
“The Masters is invite-only, and we invite anyone we think deserves an invitation. To be fair to Taylor, if you read the entire question and answer, it’s hard to see how he just brought it up. I feel like whoever did the interview led him down that path to say that,” McIlroy said.
“At the same time, Juaquin Niemann also received an invitation. I played with Juaquin in Dubai a few weeks ago. He went to Australia and won. He was in Oman last week… to play in Augusta or We are chasing our tails around the world to perform well enough to deserve an invitation.”
In fact, LIV Golf’s Niemann recently received an invitation to compete in the Masters this April.
McIlroy was spot on. Not only has Niemann won the Australian Open, which is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and his DP World Tour, but he has maintained his status by competing in numerous DP World Tour events.
As McIlroy mentioned, he competed in the Dubai Desert Classic in January and finished tied for fourth.
He has advanced into the field for the Masters, a 72-hole stroke play tournament sanctioned by professional golf’s governing body.
Gooch is not like that.
But Gooch’s comments were even more misguided than that.
He said: “If McIlroy completes a Grand Slam without the best player in the world, he’ll just get an asterisk.” The question is, which player is he referring to?
Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and six others are currently on the LIV Golf Tour, scheduled for Augusta.
Was Gooch just crying because he spilled milk? That certainly seems like the most likely scenario.
Kendall Capps is the senior editor of SB Nation’s Playing Through.For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough On all major social media platforms.