Talor Gooch bows out of U.S. Open Final Qualifying mid-round
Chung Sung-Jun
Credit to Talor Gooch for actually trying to qualify for the U.S. Open at Oakmont this year. That said, he didn't exactly see it all the way through.
Gooch, a three-time winner on the LIV Tour, was in a tour-pro-packed field at Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas, Texas on Monday. There were seven spots up for grabs and 86 players taking on the 36-hole qualifier. Names like Sergio Garcia, Carlos Ortiz, Adam Schenk, Doug Ghim and Abraham Ancer, among others, were all on site.
Gooch lasted all of 15 holes, bowing out before reaching the par-5 16th. To that point he had made just one birdie and two bogeys, putting him at one over par, not completely out of the mix but certainly giving him an uphill climb if he wanted to finish in the top seven. Rather than gut it out, Gooch was marked as DNF, otherwise known as "did not finish."
The 33-year-old was not the only tour pro to receive the DNF moniker, and not the only one to walk off during the first round. Taylor Moore, the 2023 Valspar Championship winner, walked off after going out in five-over 40 on his front nine. Joel Dahmen, who opened with a five-under 66, struggled in his second round and left after 14 holes. Kevin Yu, who shot 69 in Round 1, also did not finish his second round.
The score needed to qualify wound up being seven under over 36 holes, with Gooch's fellow LIV golfer Carlos Ortiz among the seven qualifiers. PGA Tour players James Hahn and Adam Schenk also qualified, as did Denmark's Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson, who earned medalist honors at 11 under.
By not advancing, Gooch remains stuck on just two U.S. Opens played in his entire career. One came in 2017, when he finished 66th at Erin Hills, and the other in 2022, when he missed the cut at Brookline. In 2023, he was not in the field at LACC despite believing he qualified due to a questionable rules tweak from the USGA. A year later, when asked if he'd attempt to go through qualifying for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, Gooch infamously said "I'm not."
The internet, as you might imagine, is already making the easy joke that the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont now has an asterisk with Gooch not in the field, a call back to an even more infamous Gooch quote about the 2024 Masters having an asterisk since he and other LIV golfers would not be in the field. The USGA has subsequently opened a spot for a LIV golfer to earn an exemption off his play on the Saudi-backed circuit. If Gooch "plays better," as they say, his future U.S. Open dreams are still alive.