Not even a two-and-a-half-hour weather delay could cool off Talor Gooch’s red-hot stretch of golf, as last week’s LIV Golf Adelaide winner grabbed the first-round lead for the second consecutive week.
Gooch’s bogey-free 7-under 64 gave him a one-shot advantage after Friday’s opening round of LIV Golf Singapore presented by Resorts World Sentosa. His closest pursuers are Aussie Cameron Smith, Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Tringale, with Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Louis Oosthuizen a further shot back at 5-under.
It’s a leaderboard stacked with big names at the top, as eight Major winners sit inside the top 12 at Sentosa Golf Club. They’re all chasing Gooch, the RangeGoats GC star who opened with record-setting 10-under 62s in the first two rounds at Adelaide en route to his first LIV Golf individual victory.
“There’s no pixie dust I’ve thrown on the clubs the past couple weeks,” Gooch said. “It’s just the game comes and goes in waves, and hopefully we can continue to ride this wave for as long as we can and play a bunch of good golf.”
Leading the team leaderboard is HyFlyers GC, which comes off its best result of the season, a fourth-place finish in Adelaide. Tringale’s 6-under 65 was the team’s best score, with captain Mickelson (66) and James Piot (70) in support for the 12-under cumulative score. The South African Stinger GC is one stroke behind at 11-under, with the all-Australian Ripper GC, Smash GC and the RangeGoats tied for third at 9-under.
“It’s fun to see our captain playing so well,” Tringale said of Mickelson, the six-time Major champ who earlier this month tied for second at the Masters. “This golf course is fun. A lot can happen quickly.”
Friday’s round was delayed after 12 holes due to severe weather in the area. The lengthy delay did not slow down Gooch, who birdied the par-4 13th before finishing his round with an eagle at the par-5 18th when his second shot from 253 yards finished inside 30 feet.
Last week was a busy one for Ripper GC captain Smith, with the reigning Open champion juggling many off-course demands as the face of LIV Golf’s wildly successful debut event in Australia. Smith tied for third in Adelaide but admitted the week had left him tired. This week is more low-key for Smith, who was 3-under in his first four holes Friday.
“There’s definitely been a few less media requirements this week, so that was kind of nice,” Smith said.
“We obviously travelled on Monday and had a really easy day on Tuesday, and I think not only myself but the rest of the boys on the team, as well, were pretty tired. We needed those couple of days, I think, just to kind of chill out and catch up on some sleep. Seems like all the other boys played really well again today.”
In shooting 65, Smith hit all 14 fairways in regulation. “I definitely can’t remember the last time I hit 14 fairways,” Smith said.
With severe weather in the forecast for the weekend, the shotgun start for the final two rounds has been moved up. Saturday’s round will start at 8:15am local time (10am AEST) while Sunday’s round will start at 8:05am (8:05am AEST).
TEAM-COUNTING SCORES
Here are the standings and counting scores for Friday’s opening round of the team competition at LIV Golf Singapore presented by Resorts World Sentosa. The three best scores from each team count in every round for their total team score. The team with the lowest cumulative score after three rounds wins the team title.
1. HYFLYERS GC (-12): Cameron Tringale 65, Phil Mickelson 66, James Piot 70
2. STINGER GC (-11): Louis Oosthuizen 66, Charl Schwartzel 69, Dean Burmester 69
T3. RIPPER GC (-9): Cameron Smith 65, Marc Leishman 69, Matt Jones 70
T3. RANGEGOATS GC (-9): Talor Gooch 64, Bubba Watson 70, Thomas Pieters 70
T3. SMASH GC (-9): Brooks Koepka 65, Jason Kokrak 67, Chase Koepka 72
T6. IRON HEADS GC (-8): Kevin Na 68, Danny Lee 68, Scott Vincent 69
T6. 4ACES GC (-8): Patrick Reed 67, Dustin Johnson 69, Peter Uihlein 69
T8. TORQUE GC (-6): Mito Pereira 67, David Puig 70, Joaquin Niemann 70
T8. CRUSHERS GC (-6): Bryson DeChambeau 66, Charles Howell III 69, Anirban Lahiri 72
10. FIREBALLS GC (-5): Sergio Garcia 65, Eugenio Chacarra 71, Abraham Ancer 72
11. MAJESTICKS GC (-4): Henrik Stenson 69, Laurie Canter 70, Lee Westwood 70
12. CLEEKS GC (E): Richard Bland 70, Bernd Wiesberger 71, Martin Kaymer 72
