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Taylor Gotch says Tiger Woods knew LIV Golf’s schedule.
Gotch said Woods also knew that Gotch was on the Range Goats.
And yes, this is the same Woods who has been ruthlessly talking about the Saudi-backed LIV for the past year. Is it something? Nothing? At least that’s what Gooch revealed, which was released this week in advance to the people PodcastIt might get attention.
After all, it was Woods who had these thoughts about LIV at last year’s Open:
“As far as…the players who chose to go to Living and play there, I don’t agree with them,” Woods said at The Open Championship. “I think what they’ve done is they’ve turned their backs on what allowed them to get to this position.
“I don’t see how this move is positive in the long run for a lot of these players, especially if the LIV organization does not gain world ranking points and the major leagues change their criteria for entering events,” she continued. “It would be sad to see some of these young kids not get a chance to experience that and experience what we have the chance to experience and walk into these sacred courts and play in these tournaments.”
About five months later, at a Hero World Challenge he’s hosting, Woods then said these words, when asked about the “end game” between the LIV and the PGA Tour, which has lost several players in the series now playing its second season:
“We don’t know,” Woods said. “Right now — there’s a lot of hostility, especially from their leadership. And they want to be a world ranking points sanctioned tour, and they’re buying world tours, and I don’t know — I don’t know what their end is. It might just be being an official member of the golf ecosystem and being recognized by world ranking points. I think that is their intended goal. You know, they’ve probably spent close to $2 billion this year. Who says they can’t spend $4 [billion] Or $5 billion next year? You know, we just don’t know. It is an endless money pit.
But that doesn’t necessarily create a legacy either. Want to compare yourself to [Ben] Hogan, you want to compare yourself to [Sam] Sinead, you want to compare yourself to [Jack] Niklaus, you can’t do it there, but you can do it on this tour.”
So there is this aspect.
Then there’s Gooch’s, which he shares on his podcast (and You can listen to the full show here). To set it up, the Masters were played at the beginning of the month, LIV played last week in Australia, and this week, they play in Singapore. And Gooch, who won the Australian event, is a member of the Range Goats team, captained by Bubba Watson.
Here’s the full exchange, which also includes a hotel casino in Singapore:
“I have a kind of funny story,” Gooch said on the podcast. “So in Augusta, one of the mornings when I was warming up, Tiger was right next to me warming up. And he was like, Man, you’re on Bubba’s team now, right? And I was like, yeah. It’s like, y’all going to Adelaide I’m like, yeah. He’s gone, man, they’ve got great golf in there.
And then, have you ever been to Singapore? I was like, man, for the first time. And he’s like, man, you have to go to Casino at Marina Bay Sands. It is the famous hotel casino here; You’ve all definitely seen it. It looks like there is a boat on top of three towers. It is a huge casino hotel. Shops and everything. Anyway, like Tiger, the first time I was in Singapore, I had to do this clinic there, right? And he’s like, I got to know the guy who basically owns Disney Asia, and he had to be there for whatever reason. And so he’s like, this guy’s like, hey, do you want to go get some dinner tonight? My favorite place in Singapore is this hotel casino. And then, do you like gambling at all? Like a little tiger. And so, he said, I want to teach you how to play gambling. And like a tiger, we go in there and this guy starts playing multi-million dollar hands. And so, like Tiger, this was earlier in my career, and I quickly learned the difference between being rich and being rich. I was like …”
“Disney wealthy,” said JJ Killeen, one of the podcast hosts and a professional golfer himself.
“You know, it’s heartening to know that Tiger watches you a lot, though, right,” said John Peterson, another podcast host who’s also a professional. “Because he knew you were going to Australia. And then not only did he know you were going to Australia, he knew the next event was going to be in Singapore. And I guarantee you, if you asked 95 percent of golf fans the week of the Masters where the LIV Tour was the fortnight Next two in a row, they can’t tell you Australia and Singapore. So Tiger pay attention. Tiger pay attention a little bit.”
“Yeah, that was my lot, too,” Gooch said.
Editor’s note: To listen to the entire podcast, go to: Please click here.