Talor Gooch holed out for an eagle during a bogey-free, 7-under-par 63 to share the first-round lead at LIV Greenbrier with Smash GC teammate Jason Kokrak and Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz on Friday in White Sulphur Springs, W.V.
Gooch, Kokrak and Munoz hold a one-shot edge over Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm of Spain, Matt Jones of Australia and Richard Bland of England after 18 holes at The Greenbrier resort, which used to host a PGA Tour stop.
Koepka’s Smash GC had a day to remember, as Kokrak, Gooch and Koepka combined to score 20 under to take a four-stroke lead in the team competition. Rahm’s Legion XIII is tied for second with Ripper GC, which counts Jones among its members.
“It’s always nice to look up there (at the leaderboard) and see everybody,” Koepka said. “I think (fourth team member John Catlin) got off to a pretty good start, and then next thing I know, next leaderboard, I think (Kokrak) was 5 under. Then the next time I see Gooch at 7. It was always fun to look at the leaderboard because you never know what was going to happen.”
Koepka, for his part, put six birdies on his card without a bogey, but the shot of the day belonged to Gooch. He was 2 under when he got to the par-4 fifth hole, and his wedge shot into the green landed past the pin and spun back straight into the cup.
Gooch won the LIV Golf individual title in 2023 but has yet to win an event this season.
“It’s a long tournament. It’s not won in a day,” Gooch said. “It’s always good to have a day where golf is easy. Golf hasn’t been as easy this year as it was last year, so hopefully we can have a couple more easy days coming up.”
Kokrak, who started his round on the 15th hole, had a strong finish with six birdies and one bogey over his last 10 holes.
“As Talor said, golf is a fickle game,” Kokrak said. “It’s hard to be consistent all the time. This year I kind of started off pretty — I would say solid but not great, and then kind of just fell into a little bit of a slump. I think I found something nice in my golf swing the last week or two, so looking forward to continuing to play well this week and build on that and looking forward to finishing off the year strong.”
Munoz opened with a bogey at No. 7 before piling up eight birdies. Both Kokrak and Munoz are seeking their first win on the Saudi-funded LIV circuit.
Rahm, who earned his maiden LIV victory in his last time out at LIV UK, had a bogey-free round with an eagle at the par-5 12th and four birdies.
The group tied at two off the lead at 5 under features Australians Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert, Tyrrell Hatton of England, Scott Vincent of Zimbabwe and Caleb Surratt.
–Field Level Media