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Unlike the PGA Tour, which held a signature event at Harbour Town, there was a week break in the LIV Golf schedule after the drama of the Masters. It wasn’t quite the success for LIV Golf as last year, but Bryson DeChambeau stole the early headlines with his opening 65 and four players in the top-12 was a decent return for the 13 LIV Golf players at Augusta National. At the end of the day, though, it is wins that matter. And so for this week. This is the highlight of the LIV Golf season. An event that was named World’s Best Golf Event last year at the World Golf Awards (a golf tourism event). Over 77,000 people attended last year’s inaugural event with the most famous scenes taking place at the ‘watering hole’, the 12th hole. It is reminiscent of the Phoenix Open, though the ‘watering hole’ element of that event has turned into a negative feature in recent years. The venue is The Grange Golf Club, located 10 miles east of Adelaide, close but not bordering the coastline with the St Vincent Gulf. The event is played on a composite course of the East and West courses. Even though the Golf Club is almost 100 years old, there have been significant renovations in recent years. The East course was redesigned by Greg Norman in 2012 and will provide holes 1-9 this week; the West course was redesigned by Mike Clayton will provide holes 10-18. The composite course has a classic sandbelt feel with terrain hardened by the dry weather and sea winds. That was not fully the case last year, as Matt Jones reported: “Friday and Saturday was a lot softer than we were used to and expecting, so we probably played a little more like you would play a typical Australian golf course, where Sunday it was a lot firmer and faster.” The conditions are dry this year so the course should be firm. At less than 7,000 yards in length and with firm fairways, this will play very differently to Doral. This is also the first LIV Golf event of the year that features bentgrass greens. With the proviso that there is only one year’s data to draw upon at The Grange, here are a couple of angles that can be used this week. Angles to consider: 1. Ball control is all-important this week This is a standard angle on sandbelt courses in Australia, but it is also evidenced from last year’s event. Talor Gooch was the standout player last year with two opening 62s en route to a wire-to-wire win. His scores were based around ball control – he ranked 1st for both driving accuracy and greens in regulation, while ranking outside the top-40 (of 48 players) for both driving distance and scrambling (he ranked 7th for putts per GIR). 2. Not competing at The Masters could be an advantage Admittedly, there is only one year on which to establish this as an angle, but intuitively it should hold, particularly this year when Augusta National was such a difficult test and many players shot their highest-ever rounds on that course. There is always an exception and last year it was Patrick Reed who finished 4th in the Masters and in a tie for 3rd two weeks later in this event. But the winner, Gooch, finished well down the field at Augusta, as did Cameron Smith and Charl Schwartzel, while none of the other top-10 in Adelaide had played at the Masters. There may be a week’s rest between the two events, but the gruelling nature of this year’s Masters and the travel may count for something. Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players has been selected. Sergio Garcia
Garcia is one of the in-form, and one of the unluckiest, players on LIV Golf this year. He has lost two playoffs – one to Joaquin Niemann whose wild drive on one playoff hole hit a tree and bounced back onto the fairway, and one to Dean Burmester after he three-putted the final hole in regulation. His ball control has been very good – he ranks 8th in driving accuracy and 6th in greens in regulation this year and in terms of ‘total accuracy’ (the sum of driving accuracy and greens in regulation ranks), he ranks 3rd on Tour this year. That makes him a good fit for this course, on which he shot three rounds of 68 last year. He missed the cut at the Masters by a shot two weeks ago, but that won’t hurt his chances this week. Paul Casey
Casey is another to have lost out in a playoff this year, losing the LIV Golf Hong Kong event. With top-15 finishes in five of six starts this year including a DP World Tour event, he is clearly a player in form. And in terms of course fit, his game is ideal. He leads the ‘total accuracy’ ranks for LIV Golf this year and he has even improved his short game sufficiently to rank 3rd in scrambling this year. He didn’t compete at the Masters so will be fresher than many for this event. Louis Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen completes a trio of in-form players, but he has recorded a couple of wins alongside the runners-up finishes that have plagued the other two selections. He won back-to-back events on the DP World Tour (co-sanctioned with the Southern Africa Tour) in December and then he finished runner-up in consecutive events in February-March (International Series Oman and LIV Golf Jeddah). That he finished 7th at a Doral last time out was an impressive achievement given his lack of length off the tee. This week’s course will be much more suited to his game. And, after having not received an invite to the Masters for the first time since 2007, he should be both fresh and extra-motivated this week. Tips 1-2; +0.50pts 1pt e.w. Sergio Garcia 25/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) 40th 1pt e.w. Paul Casey 25/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) 31st 1pt e.w. Louis Oosthuizen 22/1 (VBet 1/4 1-2-3-4-5) 2nd
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