Talor Gooch Wins LIV Adelaide In Wire-to-Wire Fashion

Author:
Gabrielle Herzig
Publish date:
Apr 23, 2023

Talor Gooch made LIV Golf history Saturday by shooting back-to-back 62s. He set the 36-hole low scoring record for the start-up tour to lead the tournament by 10 shots. On Sunday, Gooch’s dominant lead dwindled to just two strokes at one point, but the Oklahoma State product managed to stay on top and secure the individual title.

Gooch made his first mistakes of the tournament on Sunday afternoon, carding two bogeys followed by an unfortunate double on the par-5 10th. Meanwhile, Anirban Lahiri and Patrick Reed fired final-round 65s.

Gooch bounced back with two birdies in his final eight holes, however, and held out for his first win on the Saudi-backed tour.

“Had a couple bad breaks here and there, so it made things interesting, but it was cool to kind of overcome the adversity and dig deep after I made a double on No. 10. It was kind of a point of we’re either going to dig deep and do this or you’re going to stumble coming in. It was cool to dig deep and get the job done,” Gooch said.

Gooch’s RangeGoats held the team lead Saturday afternoon, but they weren’t able to hold onto their position atop the podium Sunday. The 4Aces crept up the leaderboard as Reed finished with a 65, Peter Uihlein shot 66 and Dustin Johnson carded a 67.

The 4Aces captured their first team title of the season after winning four regular-season events during LIV’s inaugural season, as well at the Miami team championship.

Gooch is a former member of the 4Aces but left to join Bubba Watson’s RangeGoats in the offseason.

“I was watching the leaderboard a little bit because I knew if we all four played well, we were going to have a chance to win,” Johnson, the 4Aces captain, said. “Especially once we got through—when it got close to the end, I was definitely looking at the leaderboard a good bit or as much as I could just to see where we stood, to see if we needed to make some birdies, what it was. But obviously it was a great week. All four guys played well. To get our first win outside the U.S. was nice.”