THE VIBES ARE GOOD IN ADELAIDE FOR DEFENDING CHAMPION GOOCH
ADELAIDE, South Australia – Whenever Talor Gooch reflects on last year’s victory at LIV Golf Adelaide – the launching point for his successful run toward the 2023 Individual Championship crown – several moments bring a smile to his face.
There are the twin 10-under 62s to start the tournament, a 36-hole stretch that he admits will “be hard to ever replicate” for the rest of his career. His ball-striking was so sublime that only one birdie putt was outside 10 feet.
There was the triumphant walk toward the 18th green on the final day, with the massive crowd at The Grange filling the fairway behind him. It’s an image that sticks in his mind – and one he’s seen too many times to count.
But the most important moment, at least as it pertains to his development as a pro golfer, came earlier that Sunday.
Thanks to those 62s, Gooch started the day with a 10-shot lead. Insurmountable, right? Not after shooting 1 over on the front nine, with the chase pack getting dangerously close. Gooch then opened his back nine with a double bogey at the 10th, and now his lead was just two strokes ahead of Anirban Lahiri and Peter Uihlein.
His resolve was being put to the test. Could he summon an answer to stop the shrinking advantage?
It came on the very next hole, the par-4 11th. Faced with a 17-foot curling birdie putt, Gooch’s ball caught the right lip and dropped in. His lead was now three shots and he added one more birdie at the 13th before parring in for the three-stroke win – his first individual title on LIV Golf.
“It was a big putt. It was a big moment,” Gooch recalled this week. “Once I made that, I kind of knew I got this.
“It’s one of those big moments that isn’t one that sticks out probably for others, but for me, that was big.”
He followed the win with Adelaide with another victory the very next week in Singapore, beating Sergio Garcia on the first playoff hole. And then he won for a third time in Andalucía, becoming the first LIV Golf player to claim three individual titles; he’s since been joined by Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.
Now he returns this week to the site of his Australian triumph, playing for a different team (Smash GC) but hoping to use Adelaide again as a launching pad for a second consecutive run at the season-long crown.
Although he’s yet to win this season, he’s actually playing better coming into this year’s tournament compared to last year. Through the first five events of the 2024 season, he has three top-10 finishes, including a tie for second, one stroke behind Johnson in Las Vegas. He ranks 10th in points; a year ago, he arrived in Adelaide ranked 21st in points and without a top 10.
He's delivered what Smash GC Captain Brooks Koepka expected to see when making the big offseason trade with RangeGoats GC’s Bubba Watson. Fueled by Gooch (and the team’s other offseason acquisition, Graeme McDowell), Smash won the team title in Vegas. That made Gooch the first player to win team trophies with three different teams, and it raised his overall trophy count (individual and team) to 11, tying Johnson for most in LIV Golf’s young history.
“I know that I’m a better golfer now than I was a year ago,” Gooch said. “Hopefully we can just figure out how to catch fire again.”
He has plenty of positive moments to draw on – and not just what he did in Australia last year. With the Individual Championship on the line in the 2023 regular-season finale at LIV Golf Jeddah, Gooch shot 64-62 on the weekend to seal the title.
He also remains steadfast in his Rule of 67 philosophy. Shoot 67, and the rest takes care of itself. Of his 15 rounds this season, seven have been 67 or better.
“All those little experiences where you have extreme success, it helps build that foundation of belief in yourself,” Gooch said after his practice round Monday. “I played nine [holes] earlier and we were talking about some of the shots, some of the holes, some of the putts that I made.
“There’s just moments that stick out that you’re going to be able to draw back on in tough times to know, all right, I did this, I can do it again now.”
Doing it again this week in Adelaide would mean lifting a trophy on Sunday. And he certainly wouldn’t mind having another 10-shot lead to start that final round.