Talor Gooch accepts PGA Championship invite; Oosthuizen declines it

In contrasting decisions by two LIV Golf stars, Talor Gooch has accepted an invitation from the PGA of America to next week’s 106th PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, which his compatriot Louis Oosthuizen has turned down, media reports said.

The year’s second major, to be played at Valhalla Golf Club, will see a strong field of 156 at the starter’s gate including former champion Tiger Woods, and 16 members of the LIV Golf roster in all led by defending champion Brooks Koepka doing battle for the Wanamaker Trophy.

The PGA departed from the norm used by the Masters last month which stuck almost exclusively to its list of past winners and the world rankings by recognising performance on the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV series. Gooch was the 2023 LIV Golf individual champion with three wins besides a host of top 10 finishes.

The 32-year-old posted on social media just ahead of the lineup being announced on Tuesday, “Looking forward to Valhalla next week! Thank you for the invitation @PGA. See y’all there.”

Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion and winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship and AfrAsian Bank Mauritius Open this year, is currently ranked 32nd in the world. He is reported to have withdrawn on undisclosed personal grounds after a tied 22nd finish at LIV Golf Singapore last week.

Besides three-time winner Koepka, who scored a solid victory at Singapore, his eight other compatriots who qualified for the PGA Championship are Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Phil Mickelson, Andy Ogletree, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith.

They will be joined at Valhalla by seven other LIV colleagues including former Masters champion Patrick Reed, Joaquin Niemann, Dean Burmester, Adrian Meronk, Lucas Herbert, Gooch and David Puig. Reed, who played every major since the 2014 Masters, re-entered the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking at 92nd with a shared 12th place at Augusta while a notable omission from the list of 156 is past Masters winner Sergio Garcia.

Niemann won the Australian Open in December and played around the world to continue earning ranking points. The Chilean also leads LIV Golf's individual points table for the current season with two wins so far.

Presently, the four majors - the Masters, PGA, US Open and Open – do not necessarily follow the world rankings to decide on their entries, giving LIV Golf personnel an opportunity to play the best from other tours where they are either not welcome, or have been banned.

Two vacancies remain in the field of 156 for winners of PGA Tour events this week – the Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina and the Myrtle Beach Classic in South Carolina – if not otherwise qualified. The field includes 20 club professionals from the PGA of America plus last year’s top 15 placer Michael Block