Tight start to LIV Golf Miami as three share lead at Doral

From a Correspondent

Miami: Last April, Talor Gooch launched the streak that led to the season-long LIV Golf individual championship. On Friday, the Smash GC star shot a 5-under 67 at Miami to share the first-round lead with Sergio Garcia and Peter Uihlein.

Gooch’s former team, the RangeGoats meanwhile held a five-stroke lead over Legion XIII thanks to Uihlein’s 67 and 66s from captain Bubba Watson and Matthew Wolff.

Gooch entered this week ranked sixth after the first four events, but he had yet to match the kind of performance he produced in 2023 when he won three times, including his first LIV Golf victory in Adelaide last April.

He said Friday’s round on the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral was the first time his ball-striking was up to his standards.
 
“This felt a little reminiscent of some of those deep rounds I had last year around this time of year,” said Gooch, who was traded from the RangeGoats to Brooks Koepka’s Smash team during the offseason.

“Hopefully we can catch some of that fire we had this time last year and get it going.”

Garcia, the Fireballs GC captain, crafted the only bogey-free round of the day, thanks in large part to hitting 16 of 18 greens in regulation, the best performance by any player in the field Friday.

He also had a terrific up-and-down on the par-3 13th to keep his scorecard clean.
 
“I wasn’t hitting it super-close most of the time, but I was hitting a lot of greens,” said Garcia, who has been part of two of the seven playoffs in LIV Golf history but is still seeking his first individual win.

Smart putting

“My lag putting was good. I didn’t put myself under a lot of stress. That obviously helped.”
 
Uihlein has been one of LIV Golf’s most consistent performers but is also seeking his first individual win. He’s won team trophies with two different teams, and after being traded to the RangeGoats in the offseason, he could join Gooch as the only LIV players to win titles with three different teams.

Gooch won team trophies with 4Aces GC in 2022 and the RangeGoats last year, and his Smash team won earlier this season in Las Vegas.
 
One of LIV Golf’s longest hitters, Uihlein has also emerged as one of its leading putters. He led the field on Friday in that category, needing just 23 putts.  

“Played really well, putted nice and just kind of felt like I was plotting my way around there, which was good,” Uihlein said.
 
Teammates Wolff and Watson were the closest pursuers, along with Stinger GC’s Dean Burmester and Iron Heads GC’s Scott Vincent. Six more players are tied for eighth, including Koepka and Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm. (courtesy LIV Golf)

Day one counting scores

1. RangeGoats GC -13 (Uihlein 67, Wolff 68, Watson 68)
 
2. Legion XIII -8 (Rahm 69, Surratt 69, Hatton 70)
 
3. 4Aces GC -7 (Reed 69, Johnson 70, Varner III 70)
 
4. Smash GC -6 (Gooch 67, Koepka 69, McDowell 74)
 
5. Stinger GC -5 (Burmester 68, Oosthuizen 70, Schwartzel 73)
 
6. Fireballs GC -3 (Garcia 67, Ancer 73, Chacarra 73)
 
T7. IronHeads GC -2 (Vincent 68, Na 70, Lee 76)
 
T7. Cleeks GC -2 (Bland 71, Samooja 71, Kaymer 72)
 
T7. Torque GC -2 (Pereira 69, Niemann 71, Muñoz 74)
 
T7. Crushers GC -2 (DeChambeau 71, Casey 71, Lahiri 72)
 
11. Ripper GC +1 (Leishman 70, Herbert 73, Jones 74)
 
12. HyFlyers GC +2 (Steele 69, Tringale 73, Mickelson 76)
 
13. Majesticks GC +4 (Poulter 72, Stenson 73, Westwood 75)

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