CONSISTENT ACE: UIHLEIN ENTERS SINGAPORE ATOP INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS

Thus, it’s no surprise he currently tops the Individual Champion points standings going into this week’s LIV Golf Singapore.

As the newest member of the 4Aces GC, he’s been the team’s best player through the first four tournaments, proving that captain Dustin Johnson made a shrewd move by acquiring Uihlein when Talor Gooch transferred to RangeGoats GC after last season.

While Gooch celebrated an individual title last week at LIV Golf Adelaide, Uihlein celebrated the 4Aces’ first team win of 2023. Having won a team title with Smash GC last season in Jeddah, Uihlein becomes the only LIV player to spray different teammates with champagne atop the victory podium.

Like Uihlein, the 4Aces are atop the team points standings with two runner-up finishes and a third place to go with their win in Australia.

“You switch teams at the start of the year and you want to come out and play well and do well for your new squad,” Uihlein said Thursday prior to starting his pro-am round at Sentosa Golf Club. “To come out and play solid, be up there in the points is nice. I’ve helped the team podium-finish four straight weeks. That’s the main thing.”

The next thing now is for Uihlein to stand atop the individual podium.

It almost happened in Jeddah, as he and then-teammate Brooks Koepka battled in a playoff that Koepka won on the third playoff hole. The playoff loss not only denied Uihlein his own win, it also kept him out of second place behind Johnson in the final 2022 Individual Champion standings. Uihlein (as well as future 4Aces teammate Patrick Reed) finished with the same number of points as Stinger GC’s Branden Grace, but Grace claimed second in the season-long standings via tiebreaker due to his win in Portland. Uihlein took third, while Reed was fourth.

Uihlein hasn’t had any close calls like that this season. He took solo second behind runaway winner Charles Howell III at Mayakoba, finishing four strokes behind. He tied for 10th in Tucson, missing by three strokes the four-man playoff won by Danny Lee. He then tied for eighth in Orlando, six shots behind Koepka. Worth noting is that Uihlein has the lowest cumulative score in the final two rounds, shooting 10 under (67-65).

Last week in Adelaide, Uihlein tied for seventh behind Gooch, who left everybody in the dust in the first two rounds with consecutive 10-under 62s. Uihlein shot 68-68-66 for 14 under, five shots off the winning mark. He’s the only LIV player this season with top-10 point finishes in all four events, as he replaced Howell atop the standings.

If Uihlein continues churning out consistently good performances, it seems inevitable he’ll break through with his own individual title. It’s certainly not for a lack of final-round performances; his stroke average on Sunday is 66.75.

“It’s hard to win out here,” he said. “These are really good players, and all the winners have been very deserving. They’re all world-class players.

“You don’t just show up and win. You’ve got to play really, really well. I’ve been playing solid. If I just keep giving myself chances, keep getting in contention, then maybe one time it’ll go my way.”

Meanwhile, he’s enjoying life as one of the 4Aces, the defending Team Champions who seemed to have figured out the not-so-secret sauce to thriving in LIV Golf’s team environment. Last year, the Aces won four regular season events, all in the U.S. Now they’ve won their first event outside the States.

“I’ve been able to play all my practice rounds with a two-time major winner [Johnson]; a Ryder Cup, major winner and unbelievable match player player [Reed] and a 20-year vet on tour [Perez],” Uihlein said. “How good’s that for someone like me to be able to pick their brains, ask questions, see how they go about it, talk strategy, stuff like that?

“It’s incredible. That kind of stuff is what makes LIV really special.”

MORE FROM SINGAPORE: First look at LIV Golf Singapore | Notes on all 12 team | Expert picks