Talor Gooch takes prize money earnings to $20m in a year on LIV Golf circuit
If there is one player who has benefited most from joining LIV Golf then Talor Gooch must be a strong contender, having trebled his career earnings in less than a year.
Gooch became the first player to win back-to-back tournaments on the big-money breakaway circuit on Sunday when he beat Sergio Garcia in a play-off in Singapore.
The $4m first prize, plus around $700,000 for helping the RangeGoats claim the team crown, took the 31-year-old American’s earnings this season alone to $9.89m.
That is almost as much as the $10.4m he won in last year’s first season of LIV Golf, where Gooch recorded four top-10 finishes and helped to win the team championship.
Both sums top the $9.3m that he earned in five years on the PGA Tour, where he won just once after progressing from North American feeder tours in 2017.
“It’s one of those days that I’ll remember,” said Gooch, whose victory in Adelaide the previous week means he won $8.7m in just eight days.
“I grew up watching Sergio [Garcia]. He’s one of the greatest golfers of this generation. To go and battle with him and come out on top is something I’ll never forget.”
Gooch won with a birdie at the first play-off hole after he and Garcia shot 67s to finish on 17 under par, one ahead of Brooks Koepka.
Gooch’s windfall highlights the sums on offer on the Saudi-bankrolled LIV Golf tour, where payouts are due to top $400m in 2023, its first year as a fully-fledged league.
He currently sits top of the individual standings, ahead of Peter Uihlein, Charles Howell III and Koepka. If he can stay there at the end of the season he stands to earn an $18m bonus.
Although his wire-to-wire win in Adelaide was worth $4m, Gooch ended up pocketing around half of that once the Australian taxman had taken his share.
“It sucked that 47 and a half per cent was withheld for Australian taxes, unfortunately,” he told podcast Fore The People.
“I am by no means complaining, but once you cut it all up, let’s just say that it’s a lot less than four.”
Gooch benefited to the tune of $7m from being part of Johnson’s dominant 4Aces last year before making a close-season switch to Bubba Watson’s RangeGoats.
He appears to have brought the golden touch with him, helping them to their first team victory in Singapore and lifting them to fourth in the team standings.
“We’ve been talking about being up there on the podium,” Gooch said. “I’ve been telling them how much I’m going to spray them in the face with champagne for a long time now. We knew it was coming and it was only a matter of time.”