Americans stole the top team and individual honors Sunday at LIV Golf’s tournament in Adelaide, South Australia, but they certainly didn’t crash the party.
Not with a Down Under audience starved for world-class golf and boosted by the homecoming of native son Cameron Smith, the reigning Open champion, and his all-Aussie team on Greg Norman’s new tour.
Talor Gooch clumsily coasted home to a four-stroke victory in LIV’s first 2023 tournament outside of North America after he opened with consecutive 10-under 62s at Grange Golf Club in suburban Adelaide to build a 10-shot lead. Despite a final-round 1-over 73 that included a bogey-bogey-double stretch in the middle, Gooch signed for a 19-under 197 total and a three-stroke victory worth $4 million from the $25 million prize fund.
Meanwhile, the 4 Aces team led by captain Dustin Johnson, with fellow Masters champion Patrick Reed plus Pat Perez and Peter Uihlein, took advantage of Gooch’s stumble to claim the team title at 47-under in a format that counts teams’ three lowest scores daily.
Gooch, whose 73 in the final round did not count in the team score, played for 4 Aces last year, when the team won four of the eight events in LIV’s inaugural season, before switching in the off-season to the Bubba Watson-led RangeGoats, who finished second, one stroke behind.
“There’s obviously a want in Australia, I think, for really high-quality golf ... There’s no reason why we can’t make it bigger.”
Cameron Smith
Led by Smith’s 15-under 201 and share of third place, the all-Aussie Ripper team pulled itself up from last place after the first round to finish eighth in the 12-team event. It hardly mattered to a South Australia legion of fans eager to cheer the nation’s first glimpse of world-class golf since the 2019 Presidents Cup.
LIV did not provide attendance figures, though estimates ran as high as 75,000 daily and galleries as large as 10-deep followed the Aussies and other elite players as music thumped across the course. The crowds broke ranks and swarmed the 18th fairway as Gooch finished off his victory.
“We were curious because of all the buildup, all the hype,” said Gooch, who had Australian Malcolm Baker on the bag, after a raucous first round. “The expectations were high, right? And it lived up to it every bit. So it was a blast out there.”
Added Smith: “It was incredible every hole, the support going on to the tee, off the green. To be honest, it was pretty tiring.”
Australian teammate Jediah Morgan called the crowd’s energy “Sick. No other words for it. The support was unreal.”
Marc Leishman, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, said the atmosphere in his home country was “a highlight of my golfing career.”
LIV stole a page from the PGA Tour’s playbook at TPC Scottsdale for the WM Phoenix Open and created a party hole at the par-3 12th, dubbed the “Watering Hole,” which was ringed with grandstands, multiple bars and spectators. Chase Koepka, younger brother of four-time major champion Brooks Koepka, made the second hole-in-one in LIV history on Sunday at the 150-yard hole. Fans showered him with beer on the tee box.
Gooch, 31, a lifelong Oklahoman who played college golf at powerhouse Oklahoma State, won the 2021 RSM Classic for his lone PGA Tour title. He was No. 57 in the Official World Golf Ranking but, because of LIV Golf’s outlier status with the world order, earned no ranking points for his first LIV victory.
“Golf is just really hard,” Gooch said while wearing the Goat Chain, which symbolizes a winning performance for his team. “It’s hard to put back-to-back days together like I did and even harder to do it three times in a row.”
Despite the Americans’ sweep, it clearly was a week for Australia.
“There’s obviously a want in Australia, I think, for really high-quality golf, and I think the fans here really enjoyed what LIV offers,” Smith said. “There’s no reason why we can’t make it bigger.”
The Adelaide stop began a busy stretch (at least by LIV standards) with four stops on three continents in a six-week span. Sandwiched between those LIV events will be the PGA Championship, for which at least 10 LIV golfers are expected to be eligible.
After LIV Golf generated a large presence at the Masters, the rival tour could produce a smaller footprint at the next two major championships: the PGA and the U.S. Open. Eighteen LIV Golf members competed at Augusta National, led by co-runners-up Brooks Koepka and Mickelson. Fewer LIV Golf members could be in position to qualify for the PGA Championship, to be played May 18-21 at Oak Hill’s East Course in Pittsford, New York, and the U.S. Open, set for June 15-18 at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course, according to reports by the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson and Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig. Among the LIV guys who are eligible for the PGA: Bryson DeChambeau (2020 U.S. Open winner), Brooks Koepka (past champion), Mickelson (past champion) and Smith (2022 Open Championship winner), plus Mito Pereira and Brendan Steele (both among the top 15 of the 2022 PGA) and likely qualifiers Abraham Ancer (No. 36), Reed (44), Thomas Pieters (46) and Gooch (57) via the top 60 of the Official World Golf Ranking. READ MORE and MORE
PGA Tour-suspended LIV golfers have not been ruled out as potential competitors for this fall’s Ryder Cup in Italy, U.S. captain Zach Johnson said. “No decisions have been made,” Johnson said before last week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans. “There’s still a lot of time left in that regard, and so many fluid factors involved. As far as personally making decisions, no.” The Ryder Cup is co-run by the PGA of America, of which American team participants must be a member. The PGA will allow LIV Golf members who are qualified to compete in next month’s PGA Championship. READ MORE
The PGA Tour filed a motion last week in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to dismiss an appeal filed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which financially supports LIV Golf, in the rival tour’s antitrust lawsuit against the U.S.-based tour. The PIF seeks to overturn a discovery decision that favors the PGA Tour, but the tour contends in its motion that the Saudi fund has no legal standing to dispute the ruling and that LIV has “engaged in a dedicated, concerted campaign to avoid producing any discovery.” In U.S. District Court in Northern California, the tour also asked the trial judge to stay all discovery until the Saudis' discovery dispute is resolved. READ MORE
Amy Lemus, NurPhoto via Getty Images
LIV Golf is considering a women’s tour, CEO Greg Norman said in an interview, noting that he has discussed the concept with LPGA and LET players. Oil giant Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest companies, funds seven tournaments on the Ladies European Tour. READ MORE
Actor Will Ferrell will headline a golf-themed comedy TV series in which the former Saturday Night Live star will be the face of a rival professional golf tour competing with the PGA Tour, with obvious parallels to the tour’s ongoing dispute with LIV Golf, Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva reported. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon