19th Hole
LIV Golf’s Talor Gooch roasted over incredible Ryder Cup comment

Standing next to his 4AcesGC teammates Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Pat Perez at the conclusion of the second LIV event at Pumpkin Ridge, Talor Gooch was surely unaware of quite what he was saying when commenting that the atmosphere at the tournament was little different to that at a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup.
- Related: ‘You’re all f****d!’ – Sergio Garcia launches extraordinary attack on DP World Tour players
Whilst the players taking part have been bigging up the crowd, and mixing with each other like never before – “It’s been incredible, way different from the PGA Tour vibe where everybody is on their own,” (Pat Perez) – the comparison to a competition that has offered ‘The Miracle of Medinah’ amongst many other memorable years is surely a step too far, at least for the foreseeable future.
Gooch, winner of the 2021 RSM Classic, is perhaps right to be in awe of the scenes in Portland this week, certainly as a 30-year-old with no experience of either of the two huge team competitions. After all, tweets have shown LIV chairman Greg Norman pouring drink down a fan’s throat amongst scenes of vast crowds clapping in sequence, so much so that Norman fired a shot at the current PGA and DP World Tour event. And yet to say it in any way rivals either of those long-standing team events is, perhaps, adrenaline talking.
With no hint that he had an eye on the reaction of two of his playing partners, with eight Ryder Cups appearances between them, Gooch commented, “I haven’t played in a Ryder Cup or a Presidents Cup, but I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot of difference. This is as cool as it gets. We’ve been saying about it all week, the energy is different and it’s awesome.”
He actually said it! pic.twitter.com/jtWSNj9B9m
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) July 3, 2022
Gooch wasn’t far away from qualifying for the 2023 Ryder Cup before his defection to the LIV, standing 16th in the lists, but with no qualifying points offered to LIV events, he may well have blown his chance of seeing just how the atmosphere compares.
Replies to the original tweet were ruthless, with one suggesting his team offered anyone some cash for saying it, but surely the best was by Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir, who tweeted Gooch’s updated Wiki page:
Ah, good old Wikipedia https://t.co/M441b6crud pic.twitter.com/YARFUpKhqv
— Jamie Weir (@jamiecweir) July 3, 2022
More from the 19th Hole
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.