LIV GOLF ADELAIDE

April 22, 2023

Talor Gooch

The Grange

Range Goats GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Everybody, welcome Talor Gooch from Range Goats GC. Talor, you are on fire, shot 10-under today. You have now created a record with LIV Golf, the lowest 36-hole score to date, so congratulations. What is going on out there? How are you playing so much better than everybody else?

TALOR GOOCH: You know, it's hard to say. Everything is just going my way. I'm hitting the ball where I want it to go. A couple times where I missed some shots I ended up in a decent spot, and yeah, it's just a lot of people have asked the last 24 hours, how did you do it, give me the secret basically, and it's like, if I had the secret, we would write that book and everyone would know it.

No, the game is feeling really good right now, and hopefully we can keep it going. We've got a big day for the Range Goats tomorrow, so we need to keep the pressure down.

Q. You had another bogey-free round today and an eagle on hole 10. Tell us a little bit about that and what was the crowd like out there with that eagle?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, that was probably the shot of the day. I hit a 3-wood from like 265 and hit it to like three feet. It was one of those shots if you had a bucket of balls you probably couldn't do it again. It was great.

The crowd obviously all day was so energetic, so awesome. Such a blast playing in front of the Australian crowd.

Yeah, it was a great day, and see if we can go close this thing out tomorrow.

Q. The Range Goats are in the lead, a lot thanks to you. Were you watching that leaderboard climb today, as well?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, absolutely. I saw Harold got off to a really good start and Bubba got off to a good start. When they got going, it was like, all right, I've got to get going and we've got to get this lead. Yeah, you're always watching the leaderboard, especially the team leaderboard. You always want to see what your guys are doing. We've had a goal all year to get on the podium, so it's time to go and do that tomorrow.

Q. Yesterday when you teed off, you teed off on 12 so didn't really get the full experience of the Watering Hole. Today you teed off on 1, so I think everyone was quite juiced up, if you will, by the time you got there. Tell us about your experience at hole 12 today.

TALOR GOOCH: We got the full experience. Yesterday when we teed off, had the walk-up song, a couple of us hit the green, they go wild, but today I go tee my ball down and as I'm stepping into it, the whole crowd starts "oooooooh," like starts roaring. That caught me off guard a little bit, in a good way. Yeah, it was so cool. This is what we live for. This is what gets you up in the morning. To play in front of crowds like this with energy like this, it's awesome.

Q. I think this is your third 36-hole lead. What did you learn in those previous experiences? Obviously you didn't have a 10-stroke lead, but was there anything you can take from those experiences into tomorrow?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I know I don't have to have my best stuff to win. Fortunately these first couple days I think I've had some of my best stuff.

But winning in professional golf, any level on any Tour is really, really hard. I think the thing I can take away from those other opportunities is tomorrow is not given. I've still got to go play good golf, and not only for myself but especially for the team. We're barely ahead right now, so we need to go and have a really good round tomorrow and get on the podium as a team.

Q. You've been asked this before, but that team element, could that help kind of keep you focused with such a large lead individually?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I wouldn't say it would keep me focused, but it's going to drive me even more to be aggressive and to go and put a good round up, not just try to coast to a win, if you will. We can't just coast to a win as a team tomorrow, so we've got to go play some really good golf, and if we can get off to a really good start, then hopefully we can on the back nine coast to a team win.

Yeah, and we've talked about it all year. We want to get on that podium really bad. I can't wait to spray Bubba straight in the face with champagne, so I'm hoping we can get it done tomorrow.

Q. I think you said yesterday you always speak to your dad before the round. Did he give the same advice? Also, do you get nervous now? What's your mindset entering tomorrow?

TALOR GOOCH: Whenever there was people around, whenever you're doing something that you've worked your whole life for, I think you're going to get nervous. I'll definitely be nervous tomorrow throughout. I was nervous today throughout. You don't want to look like an idiot in front of a bunch of people, plain and simple.

Obviously like I keep saying, we've got a big day tomorrow. We've got to go play some really good golf, but to circle back, I did call my dad and he said the same thing. He goes, go hit a bunch of fairways, go have some fun out there and see if you can get one going. We're pretty consistent with what we talk about. Some would say boring, but we like our routine.

Q. You mentioned yesterday your Australian caddie. You're 20-under after two rounds. How much has his local knowledge helped you, and when did you start talking about it, and what specific stuff has he been telling you that's sort of helped you, if anything?

TALOR GOOCH: He's been great on the greens. I'm relying on him more on the greens this week than in general because of his knowledge and his comfort here, so he's been great on the greens. I wish he was as good on the greens every week as he's been this week.

No, he's obviously been a great resource throughout the week to bounce ideas off of, what shots to hit, what clubs to hit. The fairways get to running a little bit in some spots, so I can really lean on him when I'm not hitting driver, where we need to finish, what's going to get us there. So I'm really leaning on him with that this week. He's been really, really great this week.

Q. What specific stuff are you doing differently around the green potentially that he's telling you that you wouldn't do anywhere else?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, not really do anything different, just his green reading this week has been really good, and it's comfortable for him. Obviously he's played a bunch of golf around here, so not doing anything different, just relying on him more on the green reading part than I would generally speaking.

Q. Is Grange Golf Club your favorite golf club in the entire world right now?

TALOR GOOCH: Absolutely. Absolutely. Give me another 24 hours, I might answer that differently depending on how it all finishes up, but yeah, now my caddie, we were walking down the 17th, and he goes, you know, when people ask me about this, I'm probably going to give this place pretty good reviews.

No, it's a spectacular place, and even before playing good golf the past couple days, everyone is kind of on the same page with that. We all think this is a really wonderful golf course, and obviously the conditions are just incredible, as well. Yeah, it's a great place.

Q. How does the LIV Golf Adelaide leader now wind down, or what sort of routine do you get into tonight ahead of tomorrow?

TALOR GOOCH: So I went and did a little wine tasting Tuesday, so I've got a couple bottles of wine. We had one last night, so probably going to have another one tonight. Yeah, I'll go get a light workout in after this and then I'm going to go have dinner with a couple people and open a little bit of some Torbreck and then go get some sleep, do the same thing.

Q. Do you head into town? Are you going to a restaurant?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, we're going to go to a place. I forget the name of it. But yeah, we're going to go into Adelaide to have some dinner.