Talor Gooch holds off Lahiri while LIV Golf plays to record crowds in Adelaide

After playing two spectacular rounds at LIV Golf Adelaide, Talor Gooch had to fight nerves on the final day and kept the closing field at bay.

Talor Gooch came into Adelaide on a mission, shooting two 10-under 62 rounds that seemed to leave everyone else in the dust at the Grange Golf Club in Australia. Ending the second day with a 20-under, his 10 shot lead above the field just looked insurmountable.

But this is golf and golf is frequently cruel.

Gooch began the day maintaining his lead with a dependable even-par, then locked in a birdie on the par-4 fifth hole in the shotgun-start system, keeping even-par with the three strokes on the sixth. However, with back-to-back bogeys on the seventh and eighth, Gooch watched his double-digit lead start to unravel, giving Anirban Lahiri the opening he needed.

If 31-year-old Talor Gooch had looked infallible on Thursday and Friday, doubts started seeping in by the time he posted a double bogey on the 10th hole, with India’s Lahiri quickly moving up the leaderboard, taking his advantage to two strokes behind Gooch. With just eight more holes left, all of a sudden it was a race to the finish, making the last half of the final a day an intense pressure-cooker, with players Cameron Tringale, Pat Perez, Patrick Reed, and Aussie native Cameron Smith nipping at Gooch’s heals.

The dazzling form that Range Goats’ Gooch had displayed the previous two days kicked back in right when he needed, with the American golfer rallying with two more birdies on the 11th and 13th par-4 and par-5 holes. On the third shot of the par-4 18th, he almost birdied, with a beautifully lined-up putt ending up sitting just outside. Making par on the final hole cinched the win for the American, and his biggest golf paycheck to date, to the tune of $4 million out of the $20 million purse.

Anirban Lahiri finished three shots behind him with a 16-under (65), with Tringale (67), Perez (67), Reed (65), and Cam Smith (66) all tying for 15-under. With Peter Uihlein ending at 14-under and Dustin Johnson right behind him with 13-under, they joined teammates Pat Perez and Patrick Reed in securing the 4 Aces their first 2023 team victory, and a payout of $3 million shared among them.

"“It’s hard to put back-to-back days together like I did and even harder to do it three times in a row,” said Talor Gooch after his big win, which also helped secure his team Range Goats second place. “I actually played fine out there today. The golf gods, I think, said, ‘We don’t want this first win to be easy on you.’“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.”"

“Obviously, it was a great week,” said captain Dustin Johnson about the team win for his 4 Aces, the most dominant team on the circuit. “All four guys played well. To get our first win outside the U.S. was nice.”

LIV Golf has a home in Australia

With a raucous atmosphere that played to daily sold-out crowds of 35,000, LIV Golf scored their biggest hit. Nothing exemplified this more than the celebratory crowd at the par-3 12th ‘watering hole,’ where Chase Koepka—Brooks’ brother and Smash GC teammate—electrified fans with the second ace in the league’s history. He finished in the Top 24 with a 10-under and an excellent 66 for the day.

It took them a while to clear all the beer can carnage after the jubilation.

“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,” Cam Smith said, clearly proud to play on home turf. “There’s no reason why we can’t make it bigger.”

Attendance for the three-day event reached 90,000+, making it a huge success for the renegade league’s second year. Controversial LIV CEO Greg Norman is already in discussions to add a second event in the country.

Impressive play from other LIV stars

This year’s Masters contenders Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson joined their golfing peer Reed with stellar finishes. Reed ended up in the T3, with B Koepka (70) and Mickelson (69) both tying for 11th with 12-under.

All the LIV golfers played at a high level throughout, with only two participants finishing over-par, Martin Kaymer and Sihwan Kim.

Next up in LIV Golf’s 14-season lineup is the Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore April 28-30. You can catch the broadcast on the CW channel and app.