Rory McIlroy hits back at Talor Gooch after asterisk comment
Niemann was given his exemption as a result of his Australian Open triumph at the end of 2023, but his LIV Golf Mayakoba victory from earlier this month was not even mentioned by those at Augusta National.
All past Masters champions currently on LIV Golf remain in The Masters field.
McIlroy believes it was more than fair to hand Niemann a special exemption into The Masters because he has made the effort to come and play on the DP World Tour and try pick up valuable OWGR points to play his way into the majors this season.
Rory McIlroy goes easy on Talor Gooch then daggers him with final line
Rory McIlroy goes easy on Talor Gooch then daggers him with final line
On top of winning the Australian Open at the end of 2023, Niemann also finished T4 at the Australian PGA a week before that.
The Chilean also finished T4 at the Dubai Desert Classic last month, and he also came third at the International Series Oman on the Asian Tour last week.
As a result of those performances, Niemann has at least kept himself on the map at 72nd in the OWGR.
The same level of effort cannot be said for Gooch in the eyes of McIlroy, who spoke to reporters ahead of this week’s Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches on Wednesday.
McIlroy did go easy on Gooch to begin with in his response as he considered the question posed to the American did lead him down a path so to speak.
But the Ulsterman was not prepared in the slightest to admit Gooch deserved a place in the field at The Masters this April.
McIlroy said:
“The Masters is an invitational and they will invite whoever they think warrants an invite. I think to be fair to Talor if you read the question and then the answer, it’s not as if he came out with that, I feel whoever did that interview sort of led him down that path to say that, so I’m giving him the benefit of doubt there a little bit, he basically just agreed with what the interviewer asked, but at the same time, Joaquin Niemann got an invite and I played with Joaquin in Dubai a few weeks ago and he went down to Australia and won, he was in Oman last week, he has been chasing his tail around the world to either play his way into Augusta or show enough form to warrant an invite, and I don’t know if the same can be said for Talor.”
WATCH MCILROY’S INTERVIEW BELOW
Rory McIlroy responds to Talor Gooch’s ‘asterisk’ comment about The Masters
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— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) February 28, 2024
McIlroy starts a warm 8/1 tournament favourite at this week’s Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches.
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