Sergio Garcia’s Long-Awaited Victory Dance on the Blue Monster?

The award-winning artist Akon closes out the day with wildly fun performance.

April 6th, 2024

by Liv Golf Staff

Sergio Garcia has played so many competitive rounds on the Blue Monster during his legendary career that there are no longer any surprises. He hopes that experience will pay off Sunday with his first win on the iconic course – and his first win in the LIV Golf League.

The Fireballs GC captain shot a 4-under 68 Saturday at LIV Golf Miami to move to 9 under, good enough for a two-stroke lead going into the final round at Trump National Doral. His closest pursuers are Smash GC’s Talor Gooch, Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton, RangeGoats GC’s Matthew Wolff and Stinger GC’s Dean Burmester.

Legion XIII tops the team leaderboard at 21 under thanks to Kieran Vincent’s 66, Hatton’s 67 and captain Jon Rahm’s 70. They lead the RangeGoats by three shots while seeking their second win of their inaugural season as a LIV Golf expansion team.

Having been involved in two LIV Golf individual playoffs that didn’t go his way – including the epic into-the-darkness four-hole battle again Joaquin Niemann in this year’s season opener at Mayakoba – Garcia would love to avoid extra holes on Sunday and wrap up the tournament in regulation.

“At the end of the day, you’ve just got to keep giving yourself chances,” said Garcia, who has 36 career professional wins, the last one in 2020. “I’m trying my hardest out there every time. I’m trying my best. Sometimes my best is really good, sometimes my best is not quite as good. Hopefully tomorrow, my best will be really good, and we’ll be able to get it done. If not, we’ll just keep working at it.”

Garcia made his first professional start at Doral in 2002 and has a couple of third-place finishes to show for it. His bogey-free 67 on Friday matched his lowest score on the Blue Monster, and he followed it with a Saturday performance that started with an approach shot that banged off the flagstick on his opening hole and included his only bogey of the tournament on his 29th hole played.

“Guess we’ve seen it throughout all these years, so we know a little bit more or less what to expect,” Garcia said. “But it’s the kind of golf course that you have to hit good shots. If you don’t, it’s tough.”

Garcia isn’t alone in seeking his first LIV Golf victory.

Of the top 12 players on the leaderboard, the only one who has lifted a LIV Golf individual trophy is Gooch, who won three times last year en route to claiming the season-long Individual Championship.

He doubts that gives him any kind of edge over the other contenders on Sunday – “I haven’t looked at the leaderboard, but I’m betting a few of those dudes have won major championships and Ryder Cups,” he said – but he does have confidence in his ability to successfully navigate a tense and compact final-round leaderboard.

“It’s nice to have won that much recently,” said Gooch, who is seeking his first LIV Golf win on American soil after all three wins last year overseas. “That’s confidence-boosting for sure.”

Like Garcia, Burmester and Wolff have sniffed around the leaderboard a couple of times since joining LIV Golf. Both are among the league’s biggest hitters, so it’s no surprise they’re in contention on a course that measures 7,701 yards. Neither player had seen the course until they joined LIV Golf.

“It’s not called the Blue Monster for nothing,” Burmester said. “It’s tough. There’s not one golf shot you stand there and think, man, I’ve actually got a chance.”

Wolff finished fourth earlier this year in Las Vegas in just his second start after RangeGoats Captain Bubba Watson acquired him in a trade for Gooch. Now he’s in Sunday’s final group with Gooch and trying to catch Garcia.

“Winning is really hard to do,” Wolff said. “Anytime you have the opportunity to be in contention or win is definitely something to be proud of.”

Sunday’s final round is set for a shotgun start at 1:05 p.m. ET.

TEAM COUNTING SCORES
Standings and counting scores for Saturday’s second round of the team competition at LIV Golf Miami. The three best scores from each team count in the first two rounds while all four scores count in the final round. The team with the lowest cumulative score after three rounds wins the team title.

1. LEGION XIII -21 (Vincent 66, Hatton 67, Rahm 70; Rd. 2 score: -13)

2. RANGEGOATS GC -18 (Pieters 69, Wolff 69, Uihlein 73; Rd. 2 score: -5)

3. STINGER GC -13 (Oosthuizen 68, Burmester 69, Grace 71; Rd. 2 score: -8)

4. CLEEKS GC -12 (Meronk 66, Bland 67, Samooja 73; Rd. 2 score: -10)

5. FIREBALLS GC -10 (Garcia 68, Ancer 69, Chacarra 72; Rd. 2 score: -7)

T6. TORQUE GC -9 (Niemann 69, Ortiz 69, Pereira 71; Rd. 2 score: -7)

T6. 4ACES GC -9 (Reed 69, Johnson 71, Varner 74; Rd. 2 score: -2)

T8. CRUSHERS GC -7 (Lahiri 70, DeChambeau 70, Casey 71; Rd. 2 score: -5)

T8. SMASH GC -7 (Gooch 70, Kokrak 72 McDowell 73; Rd. 2 score: -1)

T10. HYFLYERS GC E (Tringale 70, Mickelson 72, Steele 72; Rd. 2 score: -2)

T10. RIPPER GC E (Leishman 69, Campbell 71, Jones 75; Rd. 2 score: -1)

T10. IRONHEADS GC E (Na 72, Lee 72, Vincent 74; Rd. 2 score: +2)

13. MAJESTICKS GC +4 (Stenson 71, Horsfield 71, Poulter 74; Rd. 2 score: E)

ROUND 2 NOTES

RANGEGOATS REDEMPTION: Bubba Watson and his RangeGoats GC will need to make up some ground against Legion XIII, which will take a three-shot team lead entering Sunday’s final round at LIV Golf Miami.

Don’t underestimate the RangeGoats’ determination to prove themselves after Watson overhauled the roster, trading away Talor Gooch and Harold Varner III (four individual wins last year) for good friends Matthew Wolff and Peter Uihlein.

Individually, Wolff is tied for second and Uihlein is tied for 13th through two rounds at Doral.

“Obviously Bubba believes a lot in us, which I can’t ask for anything more from a captain, someone I look up to,” Wolff said. “… I think we’re going to go out there and give it our best. At the end of the day, if we’re lifting the trophy, that’s great.”

VINCENT KEY FOR LEGION: LIV Golf Promotions qualifier Kieran Vincent finished last individually last month at LIV Golf Hong Kong on a 6,700-yard course. Now playing the Blue Monster course that’s 1,000 yards longer, the long-hitting Vincent is providing great value for Jon Rahm’s expansion team as it seeks its second title of the season.

Vincent shot a team-best 6-under 66, which tied for the lowest round of the day. That moved him into a tie for sixth at 6 under; teammate Tyrrell Hatton is tied for second at 7 under and Rahm is tied for 11th at 5 under.

Scott Vincent of Iron Heads GC hits his shot on the fourth hole during the second round of LIV Golf Miami at the Trump National Doral on Saturday, April 06, 2024 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Charles Laberge/LIV Golf)

Vincent shot an opening even-par 72 that didn’t count for Legion’s team score. Fortunately, 20-year-old Caleb Surratt provided a 3-under 69 on the opening round before shooting 74 on Saturday.

MERONK IN GOOD FORM: New LIV Golf player Adrian Meronk was a late signee just before the season-opener in Mayakoba. Then he ended up sick and was in the hospital prior to the tournament. No surprise that he finished 47th that week.

“It wasn’t a great start,” he said.

Since then, he tied for ninth in Las Vegas, tied for sixth in Jeddah and tied for 15th in Hong Kong, showing the form that earned him the DP Player of the Year title in 2023.

He now has the opportunity to claim the first title of any kind for his team, Cleeks GC, as he goes into the final round at Doral just three strokes off the lead.

“I spent the last couple weeks working really hard on my game,” said Meronk, who is one of 13 LIV Golf players headed to the Masters next week. “It’s nice to see the hard work is paying off. You always want to get in shape before any major. I like what I’m seeing.”

GOOCH’S FINAL-ROUND CONFIDENCE: Having won three LIV Golf tournaments in 2023 en route to the Individual Championship, Talor Gooch learned what it takes to get the job done on Sunday. He’s much more confident in these high-pressure situations than just a few years ago.

“I’ve been there,” said the Smash GC star. “I’ve done it; I’ve not done it. I’ve done it in different ways; I’ve not done it in different ways. Experience is everything in those moments. I’ve had a lot of experience the last few years, so I’m very much more comfortable now than I was three years ago.”

SMITH WD, CAMPBELL IN: Ripper GC Captain Cameron Smith was forced to withdraw prior to Saturday’s second round of LIV Golf Miami due to food poisoning. He was replaced in the Ripper lineup by reserve player Ben Campbell. It’s the first LIV Golf appearance for the 32-year-old from New Zealand, who will also play in Sunday’s final round when all four scores count for each team.

Smith began feeling ill earlier in the week and had to pull out of the pro-am. He felt well enough to start Friday’s opening round at Trump National Doral but struggled throughout the day while posting a 3-over 75.

Campbell shot a 1-under 71 that was the second-lowest score for the Rippers. He led the field in fairways hit on Saturday, missing just one of 14 fairways.

Campbell is currently 11th in this year’s International Series standings and 14th on the Asian Tour Order of Merit. In 2023, he won the Hong Kong Open by one stroke over Smith for his third career win since turning pro in 2012.

ROUND 2 STATS LEADERS
Driving accuracy: Ben Campbell, 92.86% (13 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: Brendan Steele, 331.2 yards avg.
Longest drive: Brendan Steele, 346.7 yards, 8th hole
Greens in regulation: Dean Burmester, Adrian Meronk, Marc Leishman, Martin Kaymer, 83.33% (15 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: Joaquin Niemann (5 of 5), 100%
Putting: Abraham Ancer, 1.39 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: Joaquin Niemann (69)