LIV GOLF CHAMPION Talor Gooch believes Rory McIlroy’s career Grand Slam would have “an asterisk” if he beats a Masters field missing some of the world’s best golfers.

The Augusta National organising committee are holding firm to their eligibility criteria for the season’s first Major, which uses the Official World Golf Rankings to allocate one category of invites.

That criteria puts the majority of LIV Golfers at a disadvantage, as the OWGR continues to refuse to allocate ranking points to the breakaway tour’s events.

A number of LIV golfers will tee it up at at the Masters including defending champion Jon Rahm as well as Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed,  Bubba Watson and Charl Schwartzel — all of whom qualify by virtue of their previous green jacket wins.

Other household names — including Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith — qualify by virtue of having won a Major within the last five years, while Masters organisers last week extended a special invitation to Joaquin Niemann.

But Gooch, who won three times on the LIV Tour last year on his way to the individual title, will not be in the field as he does not hold an exemption and is currently ranked outside the top 400 in OWGR rankings.

“If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there’s just going to be an asterisk,” the American said in an interview with Australian Golf Digest.

“It’s just the reality. I think everybody wins whenever the Majors figure out a way to get the best players in the world there.”

McIlroy was in action on Monday evening for the latest edition of TV special ‘The Match’, where he beat Max Homa, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang to win the 12-hole floodlit charity skins event.