According to Talor Gooch, Tiger Woods was aware of LIV Golf’s schedule and that Gooch was part of the Range Goats team, despite Woods’ previous criticism of the Saudi-backed league. Gooch’s revelation on the Fore the People podcast has sparked some attention, especially since Woods had spoken negatively about LIV at the Open Championship last year. Woods questioned the move by players to join LIV and suggested that it could have negative long-term consequences for their careers.
“As far as … the players who have chosen to go to LIV and to play there, I disagree with it,” Woods said at the Open Championship. “I think that what they’ve done is they’ve turned their back on what has allowed them to get to this position.
“I just don’t see how that move is positive in the long term for a lot of these players, especially if the LIV organization doesn’t get world-ranking points and the major championships change their criteria for entering the events,” he continued. “It would be sad to see some of these young kids never get a chance to experience it and experience what we’ve got a chance to experience and walk these hallowed grounds and play in these championships.”
At the Hero World Challenge, Woods expressed uncertainty about LIV’s endgame and its intentions to become an official member of the golf ecosystem with world ranking points. Despite LIV’s massive spending, Woods emphasized that it doesn’t necessarily create legacies comparable to golf legends like Hogan, Snead, and Nicklaus.
During a recent episode of the Fore the People podcast, Talor Gooch shared a story about his encounter with Tiger Woods at Augusta. Gooch explained, “So at Augusta, one of the mornings I was warming up, Tiger was right next to me warming up. And he was like, man, you’re with Bubba’s team now, right? And I was like, yeah. He’s like, you all are going to Adelaide, right? I’m like, yeah. He goes, man, they got some great golf there.”
Their conversation then shifted to Singapore and a hotel casino there. Gooch continued, “And then he’s [Tiger], have you ever been to Singapore? I was like, man, first time. And he’s like, man, you need to go to the casino at Marina Bay Sands. It’s the famous hotel casino here; you’ve all seen it, for sure. It looks like there’s a boat on top of three towers. It’s this massive casino hotel. And the shops and everything. So anyways, Tiger’s like, first time I was in Singapore, I had to do this clinic there, right?”
According to Gooch, Tiger then shared a story about meeting the owner of “the Disney of Asia” at the hotel casino. The owner invited Tiger to dinner and even offered to teach him how to play baccarat. However, things quickly escalated when the owner began playing million-dollar hands. Tiger told Gooch, “this was earlier in my career, I quickly learned the difference between being rich, and being rich rich.
