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.
Related: LIV Riyadh leaderboard a mix of youth and experience
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.”
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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 Sebastián Muñoz and new Ripper GC player Elvis Smylie. The Fireballs 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.
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“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.”
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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.”
