Harold Varner III and Paul Casey each shot 7-under 63s to grab the first round lead on a chilly Thursday at Las Vegas Country Club.
Varner and Casey share a two-shot advantage over Jason Kokrak and a trio of RangeGoats GC players – captain Bubba Watson, Thomas Pieters and new acquisition Matthew Wolff.
Not surprising, the RangeGoats lead the team competition at 15 under, one shot ahead of Kokrak and his Smash GC team.
Last week in the 2024 season opener at Mayakoba, Varner finished in last place on the individual leaderboard in his debut after being traded by the RangeGoats to 4Aces GC. He arrived in Las Vegas determined to bounce back for his new team.
“I’m here to play good golf, and as a competitor I think that’s what you’re supposed to do,” said Varner, who shot 14 over on the tight El Camaleón course. “I was kind of pissed off – first of all, it’s embarrassing and second of all, I think I’m better than that, so prove it.”
He did just that with a bogey-free round that started with consecutive birdies. And unlike in Mayakoba, he kept his tee shots out of trouble, leading the field by hitting 13 of 14 fairways. The 63 ties for his second-lowest score since joining LIV Golf.
“I love that I didn’t have to drop every time I hit one offline, so that was exciting,” Varner said.
As for Casey, his 63 ties for his lowest score in 52 career regular-season rounds on LIV Golf. It comes after a 2023 season in which he battled a variety of ailments and never finished inside the top 20 in points in the last 12 regular-season starts.
The extended offseason allowed him to heal, and he entered 2024 with high hopes and renewed confidence. On Thursday, he followed an early bogey with an eight-hole stretch that included six birdies and plenty of strong iron play, hitting 15 of 18 greens.
“I’ve been working on the game very hard through the wintertime and had a decent result last week in Mayakoba (T-11),” Casey said, “but I just felt like I started to build some confidence out there, and it felt kind of vintage stuff. It was fun.”
Much like Varner, Watson and his new-look RangeGoats struggled in the season opener at Mayakoba, finishing 11th on the team leaderboard as Wolff and Peter Uihlein made the team debuts.
On Thursday, they also bounced back in a big way. In addition to Watson, Wolff and Pieters each shooting 65, Uihlein is tied for seventh after his 66, giving the front page of the leaderboard a decidedly pinkish hue for the RangeGoats’ primary color.
“We need to count four balls today,” said Watson, referring to the format change this season in which all four scores count for the team in the final round. “It’s awesome to see all the pink up there.”
Photo: Chris Trotman/LIV Golf
