Talor Gooch beats Sergio Garcia in play-off to win LIV Golf Singapore for second straight title

SINGAPORE – Talor Gooch cannot collect world ranking points while playing on LIV Golf but is cashing in big cheques after claiming a second victory on consecutive Sundays.

A week after his win in Adelaide, the American beat Sergio Garcia in a play-off to lift the LIV Singapore trophy, bringing his total winnings in the past fortnight to over US$8 million (S$10.7 million).

His RangeGoats team also won the team event to complete an almost perfect week at Sentosa Golf Club’s Serapong course. The world No. 59, who dropped two spots last Monday despite his victory in Australia, is however, likely to drop further on Monday as LIV events do not receive points on the Official World Golf Ranking system.

No wonder his RangeGoats captain Bubba Watson, at the end of their post-victory press conference, could not resist teasing his teammate about losing more ranking points this week.

Gooch, who has previously expressed his frustration at the situation, was all smiles though. He had fired a closing four-under 67 to match Garcia’s score as both men finished on 17-under 196, leading to sudden-death.

Four-time Major champion Brooks Koepka, who had a share of the lead early on Sunday before falling back, also carded a 67 but had to settle for third on 197.

“This is as good as it gets, plain and simple,” said Gooch, 31. “Before I even won myself, I was giving all my dudes hugs. We played so good this week.”

He and Garcia, the overnight leaders, traded the tournament lead several times before inclement weather halted play for about an hour with four holes remaining. Both later birdied the 563-yard, par-five 18th to force the play-off.

Replaying No. 18, Gooch almost handed the initiative to Garcia when his aggressive drive landed just steps from the water hazard. He took full advantage of his good luck and found the green with his second shot while Garcia’s approach landed in the greenside bunker.

With a boisterous crowd of about 2,000 gathered around the green, the Spaniard made a mess of his third shot and after watching Gooch two-putting for birdie, failed to hole his birdie chip as Gooch hugged his Australian caddie Mal Baker.

Gooch is LIV’s first back-to-back champion and joins Koepka as the circuit’s only two-time winner.

He said: “I played well and I made a few putts that probably normally don’t go in when you don’t win. I knew Sergio, after playing with him yesterday, he’s playing so good...

“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go down that last hole and make par and not have a chance of winning. I knew that I needed to birdie the last.”

The victory was also special for Gooch, who said he used to watch 2017 Masters champion Garcia, 43, when he was growing up.

He added: “It was fun, it was special. It’s one of those days that I’ll remember. 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.”

Watson, a two-time Major champion, noted: “There’s nobody around professional golf that didn’t understand Talor Gooch and understand how good he is as a player, how good he is as a person.

“As he said, you make one putt today, you miss the putt next week, you lose. So he made some putts this week and helped him win. He made a lot of great shots as well. We all believed that he could do this.”

The Singapore leg of the Saudi-backed breakaway league is the fifth of 14 stops in 2023 and will return to the Republic for the next five years until 2028.