Day 1
Well hello there… pour yourself three fingers of the good stuff and sit down. It’s summer and thus time to go to Europe. Viva la Espana golfers. We are off to Spain and the Augusta of Europe, the southern Spanish delight in Andalucía, The Real Club Valderrama. We have Flamenco, we have blue skies, and we have just a beautiful course.
This shapes up to be a course that again is a shot maker’s course. This is not a bomb and gouges it out. This is fun. I love it.
This course looks incredible. Perfectly manicured and tricky greens. I don’t think we will see may 62s like the US Open on this course. The wind is up and it is difficult today. If you don’t have control of your golf ball this week, you will have headaches!
Pat Perez got a Coke and a haircut. Welcome to adulthood!
How about those Majesticks! Feeling at home in Europe are you boys? The Majesticks now have a 2 shot lead. Halfway through day 1.
Dustin Johnson leads at 3 under with Anirban Lahiri. It was interesting to hear about how all of these guys found out about the LIV/PGA partnership. Nobody knew. This was about money and lawsuits and that PGA tour commissioner crooked fella. Not someone I would trust with my dry cleaning.
Graeme McDowell and Jason Kokrak have joined the leaders at 3 under. Mito Perreira and Cam Smith are one shot back.
DJ, Kokrak, and Lahiri have gotten it to 4 under. Kevin Na has climbed up to 3 under along with the Majesticks own Henrik Stensen. Majesticks are tied third two shots behind Crushers and Ripper GC.
Crushers are at 5 under alone to lead the team event with one hole to play. I think it is great seeing a course play difficult yet allow the leaders to get to 4 under if they play good shots. It truly is to play well and good things happen but play poorly and bad things happen of course. DJ and Kokrak lead at 4 under with Lahiri and Cam a shot back. Very fun day indeed. See you tomorrow.
Day 2
Well hello there… pour yourself three fingers of the good stuff and sit down. Welcome to super Saturday and day 2 of LIV Valderrama.
Brooks and Taylor Gooch are making some moves up the leaderboard today. Gooch is in first at 5 under with Kokrak. Koepka has got it to 3 under, tied with DJ and one shot behind Lahiri.
Brooks, Kokrak, Lahiri and Gooch are now all tied at 4 under. Wow.
Bryson got it to within 1 shot of the lead. Talor Gooch just hit the driver out of the rough. There are some crazy things going on out there. The trees at Valderrama are cork so there is no sound when you hit the trees. How crazy is that?
Talor Gooch now has a two shot lead. He is at 7 under, two shots ahead of Brooks and Bryson. Bryson has a short putt for birdie though. He makes it and is at 6 under now, one back.
The stories of Seve Ballesteros have been fun to hear all week. He was a Spanish legend, that meant more to Spanish golf than probably anyone does to American golf. He was a short game genius. There was a photo of him playing this course in 1976 and the connection to history is always appreciated here.
Gooch is at 9 under and has a 3 stroke lead! He has it all working again. We need to start thinking about the season standings and how he might be running away with the title that DJ won last year. He is in the lead already and if he wins this week, that lead is going to be a victory or two out of touch.
David Puig is quietly getting better. He is one of the young guys whose career is on the upswing. He is getting a great chance to play and learn from these veterans. I expect him to get better and better.
Torque is 7 under for the day and moved to the top of the team leaderboard at 8 under. Talor Gooch leads the individual at 6 under.
The Range Goats are at 13 under with Talor Gooch’s 7 under today leading the charge. Torque is 5 shots back at 8 under.
DJ shanked an iron and damned near hit it sideways. He is 4 under and in solo fourth place and he shanked one today, he shanked one in Tulsa. This guy has the el Jozels.
Gooch has a fairway finder little stinger or something and he is just carving up this course because he is in the fairway. Bryson is one shot back and he is bombing it but hitting a lot of fairways. He is playing well and trending better and better. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t win a tournament soon.
DJ makes a birdie putt from the fringe after he shanked the wedge shot from the bushes. His wry smile is hilarious.
DJ and Brooks both like the golf course. That’s a great endorsement. Obviously Sergio loves it, but these guys giving up the props is cool.
Bryson must like it because he has an eagle putt to shoot 63. There is a wide disparity as Talor, Bryson, and Brooks shot well, but man there were some guys that struggled as well.
Cam is wearing mid calf white socks and beating up his putter as he three putts his last hole of the day as he finishes as 1 under.
Bryson makes eagle and shoots 63 today. What a magnificent round on this golf course today. He has the lead at 9 under. Sensational stuff.
The Crushers and Range Goats are tied at 10 under for the team lead. We will see you tomorrow.
Day 3
Well hello there… pour yourself three fingers of the good stuff and sit down. It’s Sunday Funday in Europe. It doesn’t get much better than Real club Valderrama. Bryson is in the lead and has a chance to get his first win on LIV. Gooch and Brooks are right behind.
Bryson drove it the rough on the first hole but made a clutch 10 footer on the first hole to maintain his lead.
So on Saturday, Kevin Na swings an iron on the tee and lets go of the club and it almost hits Cam Smith. Cam didn’t look happy, and I didn’t see what happened but I didn’t see a lot of contrition from Kevin on the broadcast at least. So, what does Cam do? He shows up on the tee with a damn helmet today. Haha. He is so great. Kevin was laughing and it was quite comedic.
84 seconds. That’s how long it took Richard Bland to hit his tee shot on Saturday and they stroked him, to quote Brooks. His group was already on the clock and the rule book says you have 40 seconds. Good call LIV and I like Dickie B.
The Range Goats led by Talor Gooch are leading the team competition at 11 under with Torque and the Crushers 3 back. Thomas Pieters is at 3 under and helping the Range Goats cause. He has been quietly proficient and is tied fifth with Ian Poulter at 3 under.
These greens are quite tricky. I have seen some confused looks as people have missed the preferred lines by quite a bit. Even the world’s best putter Cam Smith has been confused. He finished second to last in putting yesterday.
Brooks with a 3 putt from no more than 15 fifteen feet at 3. The greens are devilish. Nothing like a 3-4 footer with a cup or more of break and quick. Koepka and DJ are tied third at 5 under and it looks like a two horse race with Bryson at 9 under and Gooch at 8 under. Actually Bryson extends it to 10 under with a birdie on the par 5 4th. He has a two shot lead over Talor and 4 over DJ who also took advantage of the par 5.
The team scores are not very high this week or should I say low. 10 under is currently the lead with Torque and Crushers with the Range Goats at 9 under. This golf course has a lot of guys flummoxed, only 14 players are currently under par out of 48. That’s a testament to just how important to be in the right spot on this golf course- off the tee and approaching the greens. As a viewer I am loving this course.
Sergio made a push for the podium as he got to 3 under for the tournament and the day and is now tied 8th. Obviously the crowd is behind him.
Here is something that I am discovering. LIV has it figured out. They are playing really good golf courses and it is no surprise that Brooks, DJ, Gooch, Cam, Reed, and others are always at the top of the leaderboard, Bryson too. It has been amazing today- Brooks isn’t playing well, but his game is very solid and he is always in the hunt. DJ is the same, he is always just hanging around. It doesn’t matter if he makes putts or not, he is close to the top of the leaderboard. When the casual fan tunes in and they get to see the stars every week, it is a great watch.
Bryson has a 2 shot lead over Gooch as we make the turn. On 11, Bryson hits a massive hook left and has to hit a provisional. His second one is always miles left into the trees. We have a blow up hole in the making here folks. He is hitting a second provisional now off the tee. This doesn’t mean that they can’t find his first shots but wow. He is off to hunt for golf balls now. Bryson found his first, but he is in deep rough. He has an outside chance of getting it there so that was a big break. He hits a terrible first putt for birdie but somehow makes par. Gooch doesn’t take advantage and makes par as well, but Brooks makes birdie and is 3 back.
Patrick Reed is 5 under and has the round of the day going. The 4 Aces are making their Sunday charge and are now in 2nd for the team competition just 3 shots behind Torque.
This Majestick G Spot is sitting in 8th place today so I guess we aren’t in last so that’s good?
Torque, the all Spanish speaking and very popular team in Spain, are up to a 4 shot lead.
Brooks birdies two in a row and after the 12th is 2 shots back of Bryson and one shot back of Gooch.
Sebastian Munoz is in solo 4th now at 6 under. He is driving the Torque team to first in the team competition by 3 shots.
Brooks is dead behind a tree on 13. He has to pitchout sideways. That will slow his momentum.
Patrick Reed going for another birdie on the par 5 11th. He drains it. 6 under on the day and only 4 back of Bryson.
Gooch hits it stiff from the rough on 13. He will be at 10 under.
They had an online poll of who would win and Bryson and Brooks both had about 45% and Talor Gooch only got 10% of the vote. The broadcasters were outraged, they were yelling that he had won back to back tournaments etc. Newsflash- he is boring as hell. I think he likes being boring as hell. Boring as hell can win but it isn’t how you get popular. There is no Talor Gooch nation… But he is really good.
Sebastian Munoz’s father was being interviewed with 6 holes to play. Listen, let’s focus on golf here and save the interviews for ANY OTHER TIME! Suzanne Heng goes to play golf, it’s Sunday. Meanwhile Talor Gooch makes it and ties the lead!!! Let’s not talk about that while he is gaining the lead.
Spain has an American yelling mashed potatoes after Bryson hit an iron off the tee. Douche bags are imported evidently.
Patrick Reed makes another birdie and is at 7 under. What a great round of golf. He has tied Koepka. I love the fact that the curse does have a 63-65 score out there even though the leaders are all hovering around even par today. I can’t say enough about the golf course.
Koepka bounces back with a birdie from the fringe at 14 and is two shots back of Bryson and Gooch.
Gooch with a great par save on 15 and Bryson matches him.
I’ve been saying this for a few events- David Puig is coming. He is tied for 10th and under par this week on a big boy golf course.
So Bryson is in trouble on 17 and he is trying to invent a window through the trees- over water? This seems very risky when you are tied for the lead. It gets through and over the green. Amazing stuff. Koepka is sitting in the middle of the fairway and needs an eagle to tie and he blocks a shot out right. Birdie is possible but he only has two holes left. Gooch has a window to seize this thing right here.
Torque wraps up the team competition pretty early. 7 shots up with one hole to go.
Gooch chips up close on the 17 and taps in for birdie to get to 11 and Bryson makes a knee knocker comebacker for his birdie. When he was off the tee to make birdie was amazing. Brooks makes birdie but it’s probably too late. We go to the 18 with Bryson and Gooch two up on Brooks. It is a fairly hard hole. Bryson is in trouble again off the tee and in the trees. Brooks crushed one down the middle, but this is where Gooch can use that fairway finder to play out of the middle and par might win this.
Puig finishes at 5 under. Sebastian Munoz also finished strong at 6 under. Jacques Niemann finished at 2 under and they did well as a team and they are playing good golf.
Back to Gooch and Bryson for the individual title. Gooch is in the fairway but a good distance back, and he has some tree trouble that is blocking his view. He can probably go over but he looks like he is trying to cut something around the corner. He hits it up to 15 feet just short of the hole. Bryson has a low window and he did well to get it out but it ran through the green and is in the back rough.
Brooks hits another poor distance wedge and will have a long birdie putt and he is done.
Gooch has a makeable putt and Bryson has to hope he misses and gets up and down. Wonderful chip to about 2-3 feet. Gooch with the putt to win… and he makes it!!! What a great putt!
Huge crowd at the 18th surrounded the green and it went to Gooch, Bryson, and then Koepka.
Talor Gooch has become one of the best players in the world on the LIV tour. He wasn’t at the US Open because they changed the rules on him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t for real. Congratulations.
We will see you next week as LIV goes to London.
Insightfully Yours,
G Spot Johnson