“A very expensive hobby” – LIV Golf champion Talor Gooch opens up about his ‘love of wine’

Talor Gooch was recently a guest on the Fairway to Heaven podcast, hosted by Su-Ann Heng and Jerry Foltz. In the podcast, he also opened up about his love for wine.

Gooch is now a multimillion-dollar-earning professional golf superstar, but it was not always like that. He wasn't born into a privileged family, so he or his family didn't have the opportunity to explore the variety of wines at that time. However, it was during the final semester of his college career that he picked up the hobby of wine tasting.

Gooch revealed on the podcast that he needed two classes to graduate in his senior year at Oklahoma State. One was personal finance, and the other class he took was wine tasting.

He said:

"Then I took wine tasting because I thought, 'I'm a golfer, and there are a bunch of rich people in golf who like wine. It would be nice if I knew how to handle myself around those people. I know that it would spark a very expensive hobby."

"Once the personal finance class was done, I only had one class for the last half of that semester, and it was wine tasting. Oklahoma State had Hotel, Restaurant Administration; their school is one of the best in the country for that program. So, anything that has to do with hotels or restaurants, there's a class for it, and wine tasting was one of them."

He revealed that in the initial few weeks, they delved into the wine-making process, which was quite captivating for him.

"I thought, 'Just pour grape juice into this box wine of Franzia, and it turns into 12% alcohol, and you drink it,'" he said.

Following the first few weeks, they started tasting a couple of wines every night.

"We had a Frenchman as the professor, and we would literally just try the wine and talk about it. I thought, 'That does taste like blueberry, and that does taste like dark chocolate.' And it just started to open my mind to this whole new world," he added.

Check out Talor Gooch's comments below (12:47):

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How much did Talor Gooch earn in 2023?

Talor Gooch had a brilliant year on LIV Golf, registering three wins this season and ultimately winning the individual championship. In 13 starts, he earned $17.3 million. Additionally, he raked in $18 million for topping the individual standings in the 2023 season.

Gooch's total earnings were $35.3 million, placing him second only to Viktor Hovland in total earnings by a professional golfer in 2023. It's interesting to note that the 32-year-old golfer had earned just $9.25 million in his 123 starts on the PGA Tour in his career before switching to LIV.

Talor Gooch will start his next season on LIV Golf with Smash GC, his third team on the circuit in as many seasons. Previously, he was part of the Bubba Watson-led RangeGoats GC but has been traded to Brooks Koepka's team in exchange for Matthew Wolff.

Gooch made his LIV debut under the Dustin Johnson-led 4Aces GC but switched to the RangeGoats after just one season.