New captain Gooch tied for individual lead in Riyadh while his Smash GC leads team chase

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – The 2026 LIV Golf season offers a chance for Smash GC and their new captain Talor Gooch to write a new chapter. Through two rounds of ROSHN Group LIV Golf Riyadh, Smash is not only off to a fresh start, but a red-hot one.

Gooch, in his first tournament as Smash captain, is tied for the individual lead at 10 under after shooting his second consecutive 5-under 67 on Thursday night. His club, meanwhile, has a three-shot lead in the team competition thanks in large part to Jason Kokrak’s bogey-free 8-under 64, the lowest score in the field through two rounds under the lights at Riyadh Golf Club.

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“We wanted to get off to a hot start this year, so we’ve done good through two rounds,” said Gooch, an original LIV Golf member who played the previous two seasons under previous captain Brooks Koepka, “but we’re only halfway there, so a lot of golf left.”

Gooch, Kokrak and Graeme McDowell have been together the past two seasons. Along with Gooch moving into the captain’s role, the team also signed his good friend Harold Varner III in the offseason. Varner opened with a 68 on Wednesday for the team’s second-best score that day, and McDowell’s 66 on Thursday was also the team’s second-best behind Kokrak. Overall, they shot a combined 20 under Thursday to move three shots clear of Torque GC.

Asked about the team’s vibe, Kokrak replied: “I think it’s great. I think all four of us get along. Talor has been a great captain so far. Leads by example. Obviously with HV3 on the team, it’s a whole vibe in itself, but wonderful guy. G-Mac is one of my closest friends. I think the four of us are going to have a lot of fun this year.”

Tied for Gooch on the individual leaderboard is 4Aces GC’s Thomas Detry and RangeGoats GC’s Peter Uihlein. Both shot 3-under 69s after sharing the first-round lead. Kokrak is tied for fourth at 9 under along with Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm, Torque GC’s Sebastian Munoz and new Ripper GC player Elvis Smylie. The Fireballs GC duo of captain Sergio Garcia and David Puig are tied for eighth at 8 under.

Detry is making his first LIV Golf start and is getting a taste of the simultaneous individual and team competitions this week. The 4Aces have not won since 2023 and are playing with reserve Miguel Tabuena this week, but Detry is leading the charge to end the drought. Captain Dustin Johnson   kicked into gear on Thursday with a 5-under 67, while Detry’s fellow Belgian Thomas Pieters added a 68.

“I like to make statements, especially for the first week for me out here,” Detry said. “There’s loads of different things … I’ve played the last 10 years as a pro sort of playing individually, so you never really think about a team.

“I was sort of taking care of my business, and suddenly I saw the leaderboard with the 4Aces popping up, and that sort of reminded me that I was also playing for the team, which is great.”

Uihlein is one of eight players who have started all 51 LIV Golf tournaments. He finished third in the season-long Individual Championship in the inaugural 2022 season and has had multiple chances to claim a tournament title but has been unable to cash in. He hopes this week will be different. 

It appears he’ll be chasing just the one trophy, though, as his RangeGoats are 11th on the team leaderboard, 22 strokes off the lead.

“Winning individual – that’s what the goal is to win, and now that we get world ranking points, you can jump up in the OWGR and try and get in the majors,” Uihlein said. “That’s definitely a goal. It would be awesome, right? There’s some unbelievable players out here, and to say you’ve won and beat them definitely would be pretty special.”

One of those players is Gooch, who won three times in 2023 when he won the season-long Individual Championship; he added a fourth tournament title last season. Overall, he’s lifted 13 LIV Golf trophies, tying Rahm for the most of any player in LIV Golf history.

He follows the Rule of 67 – everything takes care of itself by shooting 67 or better – and has already shot two of those scores this week. But he doesn’t know if two more 67s will enable him to lift trophy No. 14 (and possibly 15 if Smash sweeps both trophies).

“I don’t know what the winning score is going to be,” Gooch said. “This is the first time we’ve played 72 (holes), so who knows what it’s going to look like.”

TOP OF THE LEADERBOARDS 

Individual Top 10

T1 (-10) – Talor Gooch, Smash (67-67), Peter Uihlein, RangeGoats (65-69), Thomas Detry, 4Aces (65-69)

T4 (-9) – Jon Rahm, Legion XIII (67-68), Sebastián Muñoz, Torque (67-68), Jason Kokrak, Smash (71-64), Elvis Smylie, Ripper (66-69)

T8 (-8) – Sergio Garcia, Fireballs (68-68), David Puig, Fireballs (69-67)

T10 (-7) – Byeong Hun An, Korean (67-70), Yosuke Asaji, wild card (68-69), Abraham Ancer, Torque (68-69)

Team Top 3 

1 (-30) – Smash GC (Kokrak 64, McDowell 66, Gooch 67, Varner III 71; Rd. 2 score: -20)

2 (-27) – Torque GC (Muñoz 68, Ancer 69, Niemann 69, Ortiz 70; Rd. 2 score: -12)

3 (-23) – 4Aces GC (Johnson 67, Pieters 68, Detry 69, Tabuena 71; Rd. 2 score: -13)

Click here for the full leaderboard 

ROUND 2 NOTES 

NIGHT AND DAY: Torque GC’s Sebastian Munoz is making his fourth start at Riyadh Golf Club. Last year under the lights, he tied for second, and now this year he’s in contention through two rounds after his 4-under 68 leaves him tied for fourth at 9 under.

The other two starts were during the daytime at the PIF Saudi International. He finished T50 and T42. In other words, nowhere close to the lead.

“Funny thing,” said Muñoz, who won LIV Golf’s last 54-hole tournament last August at LIV Golf Indianapolis, a memorable event in which he shot an opening 59 with 14 birdies. “I was thinking about it today when I was playing, and I was just thankful that I was playing better at night than during the day. But I don’t know why. I haven’t had an idea. I feel like at night, it challenges you in a different way, probably in a new way for everyone, from your visuals.

“I feel like just focusing on what I can control has helped me a lot in these five rounds at night, and hopefully I can make it seven.” 

NEAR-ACE FOR GOOCH: Talor Gooch’s tee shot at the par-3 17th appeared headed into the cup before lipping out, leaving him with a tap-in birdie that enabled him to grab a share of the lead.

“From the tee, it’s kind of hard to see,” Gooch said. “I knew it was good, and then it looked like it ricochetted off the pin. But then I saw the replay and I was like, ‘Give me a break, go in, ball. Come on.’

“It was a great shot. I had a hole-in-one about two weeks ago. It was my first hole-in-one since 2015. So, I don’t know if that means I’m done for another 10 years or if the floodgates have opened.”

His Smash teammate Jason Kokrak, sitting alongside Gooch, then asked how many career aces his captain had.

“I only have three,” Gooch replied.

Kokrak was then asked how many he had.

“11,” he replied.

Joked Gooch: “That why I said, ‘only.’ I knew he was going to have a lot.”

LA SASSO UPDATE: Michael La Sasso, the league’s youngest player at age 21, shot a 1-over 73 to follow up his opening 3-under 69 as he makes his professional debut this week. La Sasso hit just 10 of 18 greens in regulation in windier conditions than in his opening round. La Sasso joined HyFlyers GC just before the season after winning the 2025 NCAA Division I Individual National Championship.

INTERNATIONAL SERIES QUALIFIERS: Japan’s Yosuke Asaji and Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent, the two International Series qualifiers from 2025 who are part of a league-high five Wild Card players this season, will enter the final two rounds inside the top 15 of the leaderboard. Asaji shot a 3-under 69 and is at 7 under, among four players tied for 10th. Vincent, the International Series points champion last season, is at 6 under after shooting 70.

Other Wild Card players include LIV Golf Promotions winner Richard Lee, who is at 5 under and tied for 21st; Promotions qualifier Anthony Kim, tied for 29th at 4 under; and Promotions qualifier Björn Hellgren, who is at 2 under and tied for 37th. 

STATS LEADERS 

Round 2

Driving Distance: Carlos Ortiz, 315.4-yard avg.

Longest Drive: Carlos Ortiz, 328.2 yards (16th hole)

Driving Accuracy: Abraham Ancer, 92.86% (10 of 14)

Greens in Regulation: Thomas Detry, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, 94.44% (17 of 18)

Scrambling: 15 players at 100%, led by Ben Campbell (6 of 6)

Fewest Putts: Jason Kokrak, 23

Bogey-free rounds: Jason Kokrak (64), Graeme McDowell (66), Charles Howell III (66), Caleb Surratt (67), Ben Campbell (67), Sergio Garcia (68), Marc Leishman (68), Scott Vincent (70) 

Cumulative

Driving Distance: Charl Schwartzel, 315.6-yard avg.

Driving Accuracy: Tyrrell Hatton, 71.43% (20 of 28)

Greens in Regulation: Thomas Detry, David Puig, 91.67% (33 of 36)

Scrambling: Byeong Hun An (9 of 9), Louis Oosthuizen (8 of 8), Scott Vincent (8 of 8), Sergio Garcia (6 of 6), Paul Casey (4 of 4), 100%

Fewest Putts: Minkyu Kim, 50

Bogey-free: Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Scott Vincent