LIV GOLF ADELAIDE

April 21, 2023

Talor Gooch

The Grange

Range Goats GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome Talor Gooch from Range Goats GC. Had an incredible round today, shot 10-under, bogey-free, 10 birdies. Tell us a little bit about your day.

TALOR GOOCH: I mean, I had 10 birdies and eight pars. It's the days that you work hard for, it's the days that you try and get more and more of those type of rounds.

It was actually pretty casual. I don't think I made a putt really outside 10 feet. It wasn't like chip-ins; it was one of those rounds where I was hitting it close and making a lot of putts, so it was fun.

Q. What did you think of the crowd out there today? It was obviously the biggest crowd LIV has ever seen. Did you feel the energy out there?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, we were talking about it, we were curious because of all the buildup, all the hype, the expectations were high, right, and it lived up to it every bit, so it was a blast out there.

My caddie is Australian, so we've been talking about this event since the moment we heard about it. It was a blast, and I think they're just now starting to get a feel for what LIV is, and I think this weekend is going to be a good time.

Q. Tell us a little bit about the Watering Hole. What was your experience there? Was the crowd a little bit crazier there?

TALOR GOOCH: So it was our first hole of the day, so it was not too crazy, so I think it's going to be a -- we were talking about it, it's like, all right, everyone now has seen LIV in person, understands what it's like, so I think the weekend it might get a little bit crazier.

Q. How was it playing with your teammates today. That was a first for you guys all to play all together as a team.

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, that was a blast. We get along so well. We play practice rounds together. We were out there giving each other a hard time and joking with each other. It was like playing with your teammates; it's nothing better than that. We were talking about it, hopefully we can do some more of that moving forward. It was a blast.

Q. Are you going to go watch FISHER tonight?

TALOR GOOCH: I hadn't planned on it. I need to go get a little workout in and get some food and kind of get to my routines. I'm sure every Aussie is looking at me thinking, this guy sucks, now, but I don't think I'm going to do that tonight.

Q. How much experience do you have on Sand Belt courses?

TALOR GOOCH: This is the only time I've been here. So I played an Aussie PGA back in 2017 in Brisbane, and it was nothing like this type of golf.

Like I said, my caddie, we've been together since 2017, and he's from Perth, and all I hear about every basically week is how good Sand Belt golf is.

It was, like I said, highly anticipated, and it's lived up to the expectations so far. The course is phenomenal, and it's just a fun, fun type of golf, and kind of similar to what I grew up on in the sense of Bermuda fairways, Bermuda tee boxes, kind of runoffs and bent greens, so for me, it's very comfortable for me.

Q. When you got here and got a couple practice rounds under your belt, did you kind of figure that you might have a pretty good week?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, like I said, it feels a lot like home in the type of golf that we play, just the grasses are similar and the type of shots you hit. Yeah, it feels comfortable, and it's something that I'm familiar with.

Q. You talk about comfortable, but it seemed pretty easy for you, as well. Were you surprised you were able to go around in 10-under on a course that you would have built up in your mind as being something very specific?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, if anyone says they're not surprised at 10-under, they're lying to themselves. 10-under is never an expectation of what you think is going to happen.

The greens are so good. I knew if I could give myself some putts that we were probably going to make a few putts out there.

The way that the course was playing today with the wind down, there was going to be some opportunities.

Again, you never expect to shoot 10-under, but everything kind of went as planned today.

Q. You see that over the next couple of days, as well, that number getting bigger, the way the course is. Conditions are going to be a bit the same, as well.

TALOR GOOCH: You know, if there's no wind, there's going to be some low scores out there. Hopefully there's no more 10-unders unless it's me.

But no, it's still penal around the greens. You can't just hit it anywhere out here. You have to be in the fairway. You have to be in the right spot on the greens. You have to be wary on some of the putts that you have because you can hit some that get away from you really quickly, really easily.

If you're golfing your ball, you can go and make some birdies, but if you're not, as you can see in the scores, it's not a cake walk.

Q. How does that change your mindset going into the next couple of days, being the hunted, I guess? Do you approach it differently, or how will you handle the pressure?

TALOR GOOCH: Not really. Again, like I always call my dad before each round, and I called him I think it was probably 10:00 at night back home. He just said what he always says to me; he's like, It's all the same from the fairway, so go hit a bunch of fairways, go hit a bunch of greens and see if we can go play some good golf.

Obviously with the energy of the crowds, I want to win. We all want to win. But I know thinking about focusing on winning is not how you win.

For me, just go out there, try to hit a bunch of fairways, hit a bunch of greens, see if we can make the putts.

Q. If you do win, are you at all worried about the Australian exchange rate?

TALOR GOOCH: I'm more worried about the Sunday night in Australia after a win. No, I am not at all worried about the exchange rate, I'm worried about maybe the blood alcohol level Sunday night before we leave Monday. That's what I'm more worried about.

Q. I think you were at like 8-under and you still had two par-5s left to play. Was 59 creeping into your head at all when you were making that turn?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, whenever I birdied No. 8, I think -- I don't even know what I was for the day actually. I birdied 8, and I was like, I've just made a bunch of birdies, started doing the math in my head. I'm like, I've got a couple of par-5s coming down the stretch; if I can make something happen, 59 is -- so of course, when you make that many birdies, 59 for every golfer is going to enter the head at some point.

So it was actually the tee ball on 9, I was like I've got to get this in the fairway, I've got to try and make an eagle. Of course I make a par, so that just shows you when you start thinking about those things what happens.

But no, 59 definitely came in the head at one point in time. I for sure wanted to be the first 59 on LIV. That would have been a cool history book to have.

Q. You're still in the history books. It's only the third 62 in LIV Golf history. Whatever you and Boyd are working on, it's working.

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I appreciate it.