Taylor Gooch had the best year of his professional golf career in 2023 by winning the LIV golf individual title, but the American solved the league’s 2024 schedule issue.
LIV Golf Champion Taylor Gooch has apologized to fans following news that his home state of Oklahoma has been removed from the withdrawal 2024 schedule.
Gooch had a memorable season as he scored his three wins in Saudi Arabia in 2023. He supported the series after finishing runner-up in Jeddah last month and being crowned LIV individual champion. This made the former PGA Tour player the world’s highest-paid golfer, earning him £29 million in a year.
The RangeGoats star enters 2024 with plans to defend his title, but when you look at his second-year plans for a full season of LIV, Gooch has a big hole.
Breakaway League CEO Greg Norman and his team have made a number of changes to the 2024 schedule, including the removal of LIV Tulsa. This is a disappointing decision for Gooch, as it means there will be no LIV event in his home state of Oklahoma next year. LIV Champion reacted to the omission, “For my people in Oklahoma,” Gooch wrote on social media.
“We had a hard time working with @ConcertGolf to organize an event at Gaillardia and they were not difficult to work with, just completely unreasonable.
I think OKC would love this event too, so I hope someday we can host LIV events there for the #405.
As well as Tulsa, a number of other of 2023 hosts have also been cut from the LIV setup including Tucson, Orlando, Washington DC, Bedminster, Chicago. There have also been changes to the only UK-based tournament, with Centurion, the venue for the first LIV event to be held in London in June 2022, also excluded from next year.
The event has since been renamed ‘LIV UK’ and will be held at the JCB Golf and Country Club based in Uttoxeter.
The 54-hole tournament has also been postponed until a week after the British Open, with the opening round starting on July 26.
Some courses were canceled, and many new courses were added. For the first time ever, the Breakaway League will travel to Las Vegas for its second event of the year in February, the same weekend that Sin City hosts the Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium.
Additionally, Norman and Company agreed to hold the first contests in Houston and Nashville. Outside the United States, LIV adds Hong Kong to its roster and also returns to Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Mexico, and Spain.
Commissioner Norman was proud of the start of the global schedule and said: “LIV Golf is the truly global golf league that the sport and its fans deserve. We are committed to our commitment to bringing new and returning markets to world-class players and world-class competition every year. We’re excited to announce an exciting series of events that reflect our efforts.
“The launch of a new league is a huge undertaking and we are fully committed to continuing our incredibly successful first full season in 2023. Our aim has always been to: Our goal was to create a global league that would stimulate progress and attract new fans to the sport.” LIV Golf is stronger than ever and will more than achieve that goal next season.”