By Frank Dalleres
Talor Gooch admitted his relief after almost blowing a 10-shot overnight lead on the way to a first individual LIV Golf League victory in Adelaide on Sunday.
Gooch, who carved out a huge advantage with back-to-back rounds of 62, saw his lead cut to just two shots by two bogeys and a double in the first 10 holes of his final round.
But the American responded with two birdies on the back nine to card a one-over-par 73 and finish the week on 19 under, three clear of India’s Anirban Lahiri.
“Golf is just really hard. It’s hard to put back-to-back days together like I did and even harder to do it three times in a row,” said Gooch.
“I actually played fine out there today. The golf gods, I think, said, ‘We don’t want this first win to be easy on you.’ It was cool to dig deep and get the job done.”
Home favourite Cameron Smith was one of four players another shot back, while Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces, last year’s LIV Golf champions, won the team competition.
Patrick Reed shot 65, Peter Uihlein 66, and Johnson and Pat Perez 67 as 4Aces finished on a combined 47 under and tightened their grip on the team championship.
The RangeGoats, captained by Bubba Watson and featuring Gooch, Thomas Pieters and Harold Varner III, were a shot behind in second.
Gooch also praised his Australian caddie Malcolm Baker for his local knowledge – and keeping cool when the pressure was on.
“His green-reading ability out here is incredible,” Gooch said. “I leaned on him more this week than I have in a long time.
“He did a really good job of not wavering and just being himself and acting like this is another round of golf, even though it was a huge round of golf for us.
“His constant mentality and emotions, how he conducts himself in those moments are huge for me for keeping me calm and making things easier than what they feel like in the moment.”
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