How this LIV golfer won $18 million for finishing second

Talor Gooch lost to Brooks Koepka in a playoff at LIV Jeddah — but he still took home $18 million.

Getty Images

Talor Gooch didn’t win LIV Jeddah over the weekend — but he still walked away with a pretty nice payday.

Despite falling in a playoff to Brooks Koepka, Gooch’s runner-up finish in the Middle East put the finishing touches on a career year. For the 2023 season, the 31-year-old nabbed three wins and added a runner-up finish to boot, good enough to become the LIV Golf season-long individual champion.

“It’s special,” Gooch said. “I’ve always felt that I was good enough to be a professional golfer and play against the best in the world. Now to be here to, I think, consider myself one of the best in the world, it’s what I’ve been dreaming about since I was nine years old. To get to this point in my career and to have this validating of a season, yeah, words can’t describe how much it means and just how satisfying it is.”

With the win in the individual season-long points race, Gooch takes home a massive payday of $18 million. That sum is nearly double his career earnings on the PGA Tour of $9,250,299.

“Man, it’s awesome,” Gooch said. “From January 1 until now, that’s what we’ve been working for, so to get here and to be the champion, man, I’m proud, I’m honored, and I’m excited.”

Gooch entered the final regular-season event trailing Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau in the season-long standings, but his runner-up finish was enough to jump both. Smith finished T24 to secure second in the season-long standings, while DeChambeau’s T11 performance dropped him to fourth. With his second victory of the year, Koepka moved to third.

“For me, again, it’s a validation to all the hard work, all the patience and the years it took to get my game to this spot to, I think, be considered one of the best players in the world,” Gooch said.

Z headshot

Zephyr Melton

Golf.com Editor

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with the Texas Golf Association, Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and women’s golf. He can be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.

We will be happy to hear your thoughts

Leave a reply

Golf Products Review
Logo
Shopping cart