Tiger Woods earlier this month throughout a apply spherical at the Masters.
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Tiger Woods knew LIV Golf’s schedule, Talor Gooch says.
Woods additionally knew, Gooch mentioned, that Gooch was on the Range Goats group.
And sure, that is the identical Woods that has unfondly spoken of Saudi-backed LIV over the previous yr. Is it one thing? Is it nothing? At the least, Gooch’s revelations, made this week on the Fore the People podcast, is maybe consideration grabbing.
After all, it was Woods who had these ideas on LIV at final yr’s Open Championship:
“As far as … the players who have chosen to go to LIV and to play there, I disagree with it,” Woods mentioned at the Open Championship. “I feel that what they’ve completed is that they’ve turned their again on what has allowed them to get to this place.
“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.”
About 5 months later, at the Hero World Challenge that he hosts, Woods then had these phrases, when requested what the “endgame” can be between LIV and the PGA Tour, which has misplaced quite a few gamers to the series that’s now enjoying its second season:
“We don’t know. No one knows,” Woods mentioned. “Right now it’s — there’s loads of animosity, particularly from their management. And they need to be a validated tour with World Ranking factors, and so they’re shopping for up excursions round the world, and I don’t know — I don’t know what their endgame is. It is likely to be simply being an official member of the golf ecosystem and being acknowledged with World Ranking factors. I feel that’s what their meant aim is. You know, they’ve spent most likely shut to $2 billion this yr. Who’s to say they’ll’t spend $4 [billion] or $5 billion subsequent yr? You know, we simply don’t know. It’s an countless pit of cash.
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“But that doesn’t necessarily create legacies either. You want to compare yourself to [Ben] Hogan, you want to compare yourself to [Sam] Snead, you want to compare yourself to [Jack] Nicklaus, you can’t do that over there, but you can on this tour.”
So there’s that facet.
And then there’s Gooch’s, which he shared on the podcast (and you can listen to the complete show here). To set it up, the Masters was performed at the begin of the month, LIV performed final week in Australia, and this week, they’re enjoying in Singapore. And Gooch, who gained the Australian occasion, is a member of the Range Goats group, captained by Bubba Watson.
Here’s the full alternate, which additionally entails a resort on line casino in Singapore:
“So I have kind of a funny story,” Gooch mentioned on the podcast. “So at Augusta, considered one of the mornings I used to be warming up, Tiger was proper subsequent to me warming up. And he was like, man, you’re with Bubba’s group now, proper? And I used to be like, yeah. He’s like, you all are going to Adelaide, proper? I’m like, yeah. He goes, man, they received some nice golf there.
“And then he’s, 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? And he’s like, I got introduced to the guy who basically owns the Disney of Asia, and he had to be there for whatever reason. And so he’s like, this guy is like, hey, do you want to go get some dinner tonight? My favorite place in Singapore is at this hotel casino. And then, do you like to gamble at all? And Tiger’s like, a little bit. And so, he said, I want to teach you how to play baccarat. And Tiger’s like, we go over there and this guy starts out playing million-dollar hands. And so, Tiger’s like, this was earlier in my career, I quickly learned the difference between being rich, and being rich rich. I was like …”
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“Own-Disney rich,” mentioned J.J. Killeen, considered one of the podcast’s hosts and a professional golfer himself.
“You know, that’s kind of encouraging to know that Tiger watches you all that much, though, right,” mentioned John Peterson, the different podcast host and likewise a professional. “Because he knew that you were going to go to Australia. And then not just that he knew you were going to Australia, he knew the next event was in Singapore. And I guarantee you, if you were to ask 95 percent of golf fans the week of the Masters where the LIV tour was going the next two weeks in a row, there’s no way they would have been able to tell you Australia and Singapore. So Tiger’s paying attention. Tiger’s paying attention a little bit.”
“Yup, that was my takeaway, too,” Gooch mentioned.
Editor’s notice: To hear to the complete podcast, please click here.
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