Talor Gooch does the double at LIV Golf Singapore as the Goats win too

Talor Gooch of the US won his second LIV Golf League title in as many weeks, and in the process became the first back-to-back winner in the nascent league’s annals. As icing on the cake, his team, the RangeGoats, topped the podium too for the first time.

Last week at LIV Golf Adelaide, the Goats had finished in second place, one shot behind the 4Aces. Taking second place this time were Fireballs GC, whose captain Sergio Garcia lost to Gooch in a playoff at the Sentosa Golf Club, while Anirban Lahiri’s Crushers GC took third place.

The 31-year-old Gooch has been on a tear these past two weeks. At Adelaide, he built a massive lead before keeping his nerve on the final day. This time, he battled with Garcia all the way before pocketing his $4 million winner’s cheque with a first-hole tie-break decision.

Sunday’s outcome at LIV Golf Singapore presented by Resorts World Sentosa took Gooch to the top of the individual standings and he now joins fellow-American Brooks Koepka as LIV Golf’s only two-time winners.

Unlike at Adelaide, this time Gooch was able to celebrate two visits to the top of the podium at Sentosa Golf Club, as the RangeGoats GC also won the team title for the first time, shooting a cumulative 12 under on Sunday to finish at 37 under for the week, three strokes ahead of Garcia’s Fireballs GC.

Lahiri and the Crushers posted a 20-under on Sunday on their way to third place and their 193 total tied the league’s record for lowest team score in a single round. It was also the second-lowest round relative to par for any team. Last week, the RangeGoats shot a 23-under 193 in the second round at Adelaide.

Leading the Crushers on Sunday were Charles Howell III and Paul Casey, who each shot 8-under 63s. Lahiri provided the third counting score with a 67. “The round itself was very similar to that one (at Adelaide),” Howell said. “This was a bit of a back-door top 10 where Mayakoba had a different pressure on it.”

Lahiri’s bogey-free 67 and an eventual 19th place finish individually means he is well on track to keep a spot in the top 24 at the end of the season when the bottom half of the standings order will drop back into a playoff for 2024 season spots.

Speaking about his team win, Gooch said on the LIV Golf website, “We’ve been talking about being up there on the podium. “I’ve been telling them how much I’m going to spray ‘em in the face with champagne for a long time now. “We knew it was coming and it was only a matter of time.”

The RangeGoats are the seventh different team to win a LIV Golf event, and the fifth to win this season in as many events.

Last week, the RangeGoats came up one shot short of the 4Aces, who lead the season-long team standings this year. RangeGoats captain Bubba Watson added Gooch to his team in the offseason alongside Harold Varner III. Also coming on board was Thomas Pieters.

“Thank you for stepping up and wanting to be part of the Goats,” Watson said on the Singapore podium with his teammates. “This is an honour and a privilege to be here and be alongside these guys. It’s special. They wanted to be on the team. They wanted to be on my team.”

When weather halted play for an hour with four holes to go on Sunday, the RangeGoats trailed the Fireballs by one stroke. Once play resumed, Varner sank two birdies as part of his contributing six-under 65. One of those birdies was a chip-in on his restart hole.

“Every time we had a delay this week,” Varner said, “Bubba was like, ‘Hey, give me some good shots.’ And I walked up to the table and I said, ‘I’m going to walk over there and I’m going to chip this in after we go back.’ And that’s what happened.”

In the individual competition, Gooch and Garcia were tied at 16-under when play resumed. Garcia dropped a shot on hole 15 when he missed a short par putt, but bounced back with a birdie on 16.

Both players birdied the par-5 18th to finish at 17-under and in the playoff, the fourth in LIV Golf history and the second this season, Gooch went for broke successfully.

Taking an aggressive line on hole 18, the American saw his tee ball finish just feet from the water. But it set up a second shot that found the green. Meanwhile, Garcia’s second shot landed in a greenside bunker.

A difficult third shot came up short and finished in the rough just above the bunker. After Gooch two-putted for birdie, Garcia could not hole his birdie chip.

“It’s one of those days that I’ll remember,” said Gooch. “I grew up watching Sergio. He’s one of the greatest golfers of this generation. To go and battle with him and come out on top is something I’ll never forget.”

Final scores

1. RangeGoatas GC (-37): Harold Varner III 65, Talor Gooch 67, Thomas Pieters 69

2. Fireballs GC (-34): Eugenio Chacarra 64, Sergio Garcia 67, Carlos Ortiz 69

3. Crushers GC (-32): Charles Howell III 63, Paul Casey 63, Anirban Lahiri 67

4. Torque GC (-31): Joaquin Niemann 66, Mito Pereira 66, Sebastian Munoz 70

5. Smash GC (-30): Jason Kokrak 66, Matthew Wolff 67, Brooks Koepka 67

6. Ripper GC (-29): Marc Leishman 68, Jediah Morgan 68, Cameron Smith 70

7. Iron Heads GC (-28): Scott Vincent 67, Kevin Na 69, Danny Lee 70

8. HyFlyers GC (-28): Brendan Steele 66, Phil Mickelson 72, Cameron Tringale 72

9. 4Aces GC (-27): Peter Uihlein 66, Patrick Reed 67, Pat Perez 69

10. Stingers GC (-16): Dean Burmester 69, Louis Oosthuizen 70, Charl Schwartzel 70

11. Majesticks GC (-15): Ian Poulter 66, Laurie Canter 68, Lee Westwood 69

12. Cleeks GC (-12): Richard Bland 68, Graeme McDowell 69, Bernd Wiesberger 70