Talor Gooch Wins Another LIV Golf Event, Believes He Belongs On United States Ryder Cup Team

Talor Gooch is dominating the LIV Golf tour this season. On Sunday, Gooch captured the LIV Golf Andalucia title. After the win, Gooch discussed deserving a spot on the United States Ryder Cup team.

The victory represented his third win this season, all of which have come in the past five events on the Saudi-backed Tour.

For this win, Gooch secured a one-shot victory over Bryson DeChambeau, thanks to a birdie putt on the final hole. Brooks Koepka finished third, three shots behind Gooch.

Gooch leads the LIV Golf tour standings, though I honestly don't know what that means. I could not tell you how their points system works. For what it's worth, Koepka is in second place, 27 points behind Gooch.

Cam Smith ranks third and Dustin Johnson is fifth.

Following his third LIV Golf win in the past five events, Talor Gooch believes he should be considered for the American Ryder Cup team. (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)

The point is that Talor Gooch is ahead of some very good golfers. That includes 2022 Open Champion Smith and five-time major winner Koepka, who won his third PGA Championship in May.

There's a lot of debate about the LIV Golf players and the upcoming Ryder Cup. The competition starts Sept. 29 in Italy.

Each team -- the United States and Europe -- consists of 12 players. Six of those players are automatically qualified based on a points system.

For the United States, Scottie Scheffler leads the way in Ryder Cup points followed by Wyndham Clark and Brooks Koepka.

But the only way that the LIV Golf players can earn Ryder Cup points is through the major tournaments. LIV events do not carry points.

Koepka, thanks to his major dominance, is going to be on the US team, almost certainly as an automatic qualifier.

But Ryder Cup captains select the remaining six players. For the United States, that's Zach Johnson.

And there's been a lot of debate about whether or not LIV Golf players should be considered as potential captain's picks for the Ryder Cup.

Prior to the PGA Tour merger with LIV Golf, that seemed extremely unlikely. But now that the tours are merging, the door is open for guys like Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Talor Gooch.

"Yeah, a few weeks back when I was in Cabo and woke up one morning and I had 137 texts on my phone and the news had broke of the merger, my immediate thought was, I wonder what this means for Ryder Cup," Gooch said.

"If apples were to apples, the guy leading the FedExCup and the guy leading the LIV standings, it's like -- I think my play has shown that it's at least worth a discussion."

Talor Gooch is not going to be on the United States Ryder Cup team. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that's just reality.

He's made an argument with his LIV Golf play, but the truth of the matter is that the golf community doesn't know what to make of LIV Golf victories.

Events consist of just 48 players, so that's already much less valuable than winning any given PGA Tour event.

Plus, the players only play three rounds of golf instead of four.

But there are just too many good, American players on the PGA Tour to consider someone like Talor Gooch.

The LIV Golf backers are going to be unhappy, but part of what these guys gave up when they left was a chance to play in this year's Ryder Cup.

But, they made a lot of money in the process.

Unfortunately, though, you can't have your cake and eat it, too.