ADELAIDE PREVIEW: GOOCH LEADS TEAM INTO PROMISING WEEK

Team: Smash Golf Club
Previous event team finish: 7th at LIV Golf Miami
Season-long team standings: 4th
Top finisher from previous event: Talor Gooch, T-9
Fun stat: Smash GC’s driving accuracy and consistency have been next level this season. The team leads the League in fairways hit (59.71%) and has hit 19 more fairways than any other team.

Preview

While the Australian players will be all the rage this week at LIV Golf Adelaide, American Talor Gooch might be the player fans need to pay attention to most. Gooch’s success at this event is other worldly, and there’s nothing to suggest he won’t build on it in 2024.

Gooch returns to the site of his first LIV Golf individual victory, and it was quite a show. He shot 10-under 62 in both the first and second rounds, which catapulted him to the title and a remarkable overall season. And while 2024 hasn’t been full of victories quite yet, Gooch is still one of the leading contenders entering each event. Gooch is one of just three players who have finished with points in all five events as he sits in 10th place in the individual standings.

"I've gotten off to a better start to the year this year than I did last year, and I know 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."

Captain Brooks Koepka looks to turn things around at Adelaide after finishing T-45 in Miami. But consider that result just a blip. It was the first time he finished outside the top 40 in his LIV Golf career, and he has plenty of time to make a move as he resides 18th in the standings. That time could come this week considering he finished T-11 here last year.

Teammate Jason Kokrak also finished T-11 here last year. He’s in fine shape at 19th in the standings, thanks mainly to back-to-back top-6 finishes in Las Vegas and Jeddah. He’s looking to build on his 27th-place finish in Miami.

Major champion Graeme McDowell continues to contribute nicely, and Miami was more of the same. At the daunting Doral layout, McDowell finished T-29 and didn’t hurt his team. He has already pocketed two top-10 finishes this year so expect positive contributions this week in Australia.

But all eyes will be on Gooch this week when it comes to Smash GC. And he will certainly look back to his victory here last season should be needed any added confidence.

"I was hitting everything close," Gooch said. "I think I made one putt outside 10 feet in the two days. It was just one of those twilight moments where everything was close, and I was making a bunch of those 5- to 10-footers, and it was just a perfect combination."