Talor Gooch fires back at Billy Horschel's comments on LIV players at Wentworth

LIV Golf player Talor Gooch said Billy Horschel supports what is best for his career "like all of us do," following his controversial comments on Tuesday.

Matt Chivers's picture
Wed, 7 Sep 2022
Talor Gooch fires back at Billy Horschel's comments on LIV players at Wentworth

LIV Golf player Talor Gooch has snapped back at Billy Horschel over his comments regarding the participation of certain players at the BMW PGA Championship.

On Tuesday evening, Gooch tweeted that Horschel has played in six DP World Tour events in his career and assumed that he'd been paid appearance fees to play.

Gooch, who has earned $3,403,000 in four LIV Golf events, said: "He supports what's best for his career. Like all of us do," referring to his decision to join the Saudi-backed series.

The American was one of the first players to move from the PGA Tour, and therefore suspended too, and he made headlines when he compared the atmosphere at the Portland Invitational to the Ryder Cup.

Both Horschel and Jon Rahm were critical of American players in particular who supposedly don't care about the DP World Tour's flagship event at Wentworth and wouldn't be playing had they not been suspended from the PGA Tour.

Abraham Ancer, Jason Kokrak and Gooch were named by Horschel, but Rahm didn't go as far as naming players. It is worth noting that Kokrak is no longer in the field for the tournament at Virginia Water.

Gooch followed up with another tweet: "World ranking points and the first time I’ve earned a spot into this event. Super excited to play. Name a top 50 player in history who hasn't chased world ranking points..."

The 30-year-old, who won the RSM Classic last season, has defended his right to play and effectively, his right to subsidise his more empty schedule with other events.

On Wednesday afternoon, Rory McIlroy said the LIV Golf players shouldn't be at Wentworth too. During a session with the media, McIlroy admitted he no longer had "much of a relationship" with the likes of Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter.