Adelaide, Australia — Tallor Gooch outlasted the more famous names on the Leaf golf tour by firing a 10-under 62 on Friday to take a four-stroke lead after the first round of the inaugural Australian Championship at The Grange.
The 31-year-old American started with par at the opening hole in the gun’s starting par-3 12 but then had 10 birdies, including five in a row.
Two other players in the unremarkable category—Richard Bland and Dean Burmester—shot 66s, tied for second. Five players are tied for fourth, including Danny Lee, who won his second LIV event in Arizona in mid-March.
“If anyone says they weren’t surprised at the age of 10, they’re lying,” Gooch said. “It’s the day you work so hard for… It was one of those rounds where I was hitting it and it got a lot of jabs, so it was fun.”
Notable names in the 48-man field were trailing on the leaderboard.
Sergio Garcia shot 68 seconds while British champions Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka scored 69 seconds. Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson had 70s, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson shot 71. Bryson DeChambeau scored 73.
LIV Golf and local organizers said there was a sellout crowd of 35,000 on the first day. Local media reported that there were long lines of fans waiting to enter the course when the golfers left just after midday in Adelaide.
“The energy was really high out there,” said Smith, who is Australian. “It’s nice to have a lot of people riding with you, but it’s also very stressful—you want to hit a good shot all the time, it just doesn’t flow as freely as it usually does.”
Johnson’s team, Aces GC, led the team leaderboard entering their fourth championship of the year. Charles Howell III, who won the season-opening event in Mexico and shot a 69 on Friday, leads the overall individual standings ahead of Koepka, who won the recent LIV Championships in Orlando.
The individual winner of The Grange will collect $4 million from a total purse of $20 million.
The 14-event season continues next weekend at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore.