Talor Gooch wins 2023 LIV Golf individual championship at Jeddah

Talor Gooch has been crowned LIV Golf's individual champion for 2023 at the Jeddah event this weekend. The season-long title fight has come with a substantial bonus of $18 million that Gooch will enjoy as champion. Being the first winner of LIV Golf's first full season, Gooch has marked his name in the history books.

The RangeGoats GC star headed into a playoff at the Jeddah event with Brooks Koepka, ensuring that he also took the top spot on the individual leaderboard. Gooch was leading the leaderboard going into the last day with 172 points. Right behind him was Cameron Smith followed by Bryson DeChambeau.

With six holes left to play for the day, Gooch took the top spot with 178 points. On the other hand, Smith finished second with 170 points, and DeChambeau retained his third place with 154 points.

Gooch has won three individual events this year. He took his first title at the LIV Golf Andalucia event. He then won back-to-back titles, first at the Singapore event and then at Adelaide the very next week.

Speaking to LIV Golf, he said:

“It's been a culmination of years of hard work and patience. I played really well last year, and I couldn't close out some tournaments. Some of that experience of failing last year I think kind of set me up to succeed for this year when I was in those same positions.”

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Talor Gooch shares thoughts on LIV Golf's rejection from OWGR points board

Just ahead of the Jeddah event, LIV Golf's request for its players to be given points on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) points board was requested. In a move that was strongly disapproved by several players, the board could not come to a unanimous decision regarding the same.

Talor Gooch, along with others, expressed their disappointment.

"It’s not surprising given everything that’s gone on the last 1-1/2 years. Nonetheless, it further confirms the irrelevancy of the OWGR. Their job is to rank players all around the world; it’s not players’ and tours’ jobs to conform to what they decide is worth getting ranked, or how you’re able to get ranked," he told the media.

Talor Gooch maintained that it is the OWGR's job to figure out the best players in the world, and their inability to provide points to the LIV players has rendered that role redundant.