Former OSU golfer Talor Gooch wins third LIV Golf event, sits atop LIV standings

Braden Bush Sports Editor

Talor Gooch now sits atop LIV Golf.

Gooch sunk a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain, to pick up a one-stroke win over Bryson DeChambeau. Gooch’s 4-under, 67-shot performance gave him his third LIV Golf win of the season and placed him at the top of the LIV Tour standings.

No other LIV golfer has more than one tournament win in 2023.

With the $4 million in winnings from Sunday, the same day fellow former OSU golfer Rickie Fowler won his first PGA event since 2019, Gooch now has 2023 earnings of more than $13.3 million across eight events. He’s finished in the top 15 at six of eight events.

Gooch sat T-4 after the first round but jumped to second, just behind DeChambeau, with a 6-under performance in Round 2.

DeChambeau pushed his lead to two strokes at different points on Sunday, but Gooch caught DeChambeau with a pair of birdies on the back nine and set up the dramatic final few holes.

Both birdied the 17th hole, but while DeChambeau (-11) went par on the 18th, Gooch (-12) drained a birdie putt to walk off with a win.

Gooch’s team, RangeGoats

GC, finished second (-11) in the team race.

Three other former OSU golfers are on the LIV Tour, but none were near the top this weekend. Eugenio Chacarra finished 41st (+8), Peter Uihlein earned 43rd (+10) Matthew Wolff slated in at 44th (+12) and Charles Howell III ended at 47th (+15).

For the first time, vows were exchanged in the OSU Spears School of Business.

“I’m kind of a performer,” said Rick Wilson as he talked about his wedding officiant role in the event. Wilson has spent 33 years of his career at OSU’s business school with the last 21 years being spent as the first department head of the Department of Management Science and Information Systems.

He had the privilege of officiating the first wedding ceremony back in May inside the OSU building since it opened in 2018. Spears staff member Steven Plummer and his fiancé Ashley were the couple in question.

During the pandemic, Wilson started officiating weddings when two friends decided to quickly get married and needed someone to do it for them. The ceremony was hosted in Wilson’s home with his wife serving as the witness to the wedding and helped decorate their living room for the occasion.

After protocols associated with COVID-19 decreased in severity, Wilson had the honor of being able to officiate a second wedding for the same couple.

Wilson’s son and daughter-in-law, Trevor and Annagrace Wilson, were next up on the list of couple’s he would officiate for. Wilson includes words of wisdom, personality and a little flare into every wedding he does. At a couple of weddings, he talked about successful UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden and his tenants of marriage.

“I try not to be a performer, but it’s just a small way in which I could use some of the skills that I’ve developed over time to give back,” Wilson said.

The Plummer’s already had plans that entailed a different location and officiant, but those plans fell through. Steven then approached Wilson and asked if he would be willing to do it. Wilson accepted the challenge and the group settled for a date at the end of May.

The couple wanted to have the ceremony at a nearby chapel, but it was fully booked. Finally, the Plummer’s chose Theta Pond on OSU’s campus in

Stillwater as the background for tying the knot.

It rained in Stillwater all afternoon the day of the wedding, so it was moved to a backup location, the campus’s own business building. Wilson was able to one-up the back-up plan to the back-up plan and got keys to one of the nicest and prettiest rooms in Spears, the Stephanie and Bill Sick Crystal Room on the fourth floor.

Wilson was able to touch on Wooden’s tenants of marriage wisdom in his officiating which made the ceremony even more special.

“I enjoy playing a small role in a broader picture thing that people enjoy,” Wilson said. “Because at the end of the day I want people to have fun as well.” news.ed@ocolly.com