Lahiri charge falls just short as Gooch takes Adelaide win

By Rahul Banerji

Two birdie putts that skated past the rim halted Anirban Lahiri’s magnificent charge on the final day of LIV Golf Adelaide as Talor Gooch held on for a maiden title win on Sunday.

Lahiri took his challenge almost to the end but Gooch regrouped just in time to pick up the striking trophy and a cheque worth $4 million, while the Indian star had to be content with $2.125 million.

It was still Lahiri’s richest pay day as a professional as he matched his LIV Boston result of last year. Only this time, he did not need to share the earnings as he had to do last time, finishing joint second behind Dustin Johnson in a three-way playoff.

Despite pulling out of the LIV Golf Orlando event to be with his ailing mother-in-law last month Lahiri came to South Australia’s capital in good form.

Last week, he finished joint second at the Asian Tour’s International Series Vietnam and played solid golf over the first two days, with a three-under 69 and a 66 on the first two days.

On Sunday, the Bangalore golfer ramped it up still further rattling the runaway leader, who was 20-under 124 overnight.

Scorching run

Gooch started 10 shots ahead of the field and 11 up on Lahiri but two bogeys and a double, along with the latter’s blistering early run that included an eagle and four birdies in six holes saw the lead dwindle to just two shots.

But a late rally thereafter, particularly a decisive birdie on hole 11 helped Gooch regain momentum and Lahiri’s two missed birdies on the back stretch gave him some breathing space.

In the end Gooch took top spot on 19-under 197 with a 73 on Sunday, while Lahiri, who dropped his only shot of the day on his closing hole finished on 16-under 200.

“Just bloody awesome. So many smiles out there. Man we love what we do,” Lahiri tweeted later.

The result meant that a win still eludes Lahiri after his 2015 Indian Open victory, though he has now finished second or joint second several times in the last few years including twice on the PGA Tour.

Added Gooch, “I think golf is just really hard. It‘s hard to put back-to-back days together like I did and even harder to do it three times in a row.

“Actually played fine out there today. The golf gods I think said, we don’t want this first win to be easy on you.

Digging deep

“Had a couple of 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.”

A four-way tie for third saw Cameron Tringale (67), Pat Perez (67), Patrick Reed (65) and British Open champion Cam Smith (66) all finishing on 15-under 201.

Three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson was T11 on 12-under 204 with a closing 69.

‘Party’ hole

With massive crowds thronging the Grange Golf Club outside Adelaide, noise levels were high through the day and reached a crescendo when Chase Koepka, younger brother of four-time major winner Brooks, aced the ‘party hole’.

The junior Koepka was over the moon after his tee shot on the par-3 12^th “Watering Hole” spun into the cup, sparking off a booze-fuelled party that saw beer glasses and cans rain onto the tee.

“The roars just kept getting louder and louder and louder,” he said on the LIV Golf website later.

“And when it went in, I started just getting peppered with beer cans. I smelt like beer the whole entire rest of the day. It was a wild, crazy experience.”

“A once-in-a-lifetime experience,” added Koepka, who used a 9-iron to record the sixth hole-in-one of his career, and the second after Matthew Wolff for LIV Golf.

Aces back on top

In the team event, eventual 2022 winners the 4 Aces lead by Dustin Johnson topped the podium for the first time this season, relegating Gooch’s RangeGoats to second by just one point.

The Goats, led by Bubba Watson were overall 45 under par while Johnson’s unit, whom Gooch played for last year ironically, were 46 under with the Singers third on 44 under.

While the 4Aces shared a $3 million cheque, the Goats earned $1.5 million and $500,000 went to the all-South African Stingers.

Final counting scores

1. 4Aces GC (-46): Patrick Reed 65, Peter Uihlein 66, Dustin Johnson 67 (Rd. 3 score: -18)

2. RangeGoats GC (-45): Bubba Watson 67, Harold Varner III 69, Thomas Pieters 70 (Rd. 3 score: -10)

3. Stinger GC (-44): Dean Burmester 67, Charl Schwartzel 68, Louis Oosthuizen 70 (Rd. 3 score: -11)

4. HyFlyers GC (-40): James Piot 66, Cameron Tringale 67, Phil Mickelson 69 (Rd. 3 score: -14)

5. Crushers GC (-38): Anirban Lahiri 65, Charles Howell III 67, Bryson DeChambeau 69 (Rd. 3 score: -15)

6. Smash GC (-34): Jason Kokrak 65, Chase Koepka 66, Brooks Koepka 70 (Rd. 3 score: -15)

7. Torque GC (-32): Sebastián Muñoz 67, Mito Pereira 69, Joaquin Niemann 70 (Rd. 3 score: -10)

8. Ripper GC (-31): Marc Leishman 65, Cameron Smith 66, Jediah Morgan 68 (Rd. 3 score: -17)

9. Fireballs GC (-30): Sergio Garcia 68, Abraham Ancer 70, Carlos Ortiz 71 (Rd. 3 score: -7)

10. Iron Heads GC (-28): Kevin Na 67, Danny Lee 68, Scott Vincent 71 (Rd. 3 score: -10)

11. Majesticks GC (-27): Ian Poulter 66, Henrik Stenson 68, Laurie Canter 70 (Rd. 3 score: -12)

12. Cleeks GC (-24): Martin Kaymer 71, Bernd Wiesberger 71, Richard Bland 72 (Rd. 3 score: -2)

Also read: Lahiri climbs leaderboard but Gooch rules at the Grange