LAS VEGAS: Harold Varner III is looking to make up for last week. Paul Casey is looking to make up for last year.
Both are off to flying starts at LIV Golf Las Vegas.
Varner and Casey each shot 7-under 63s to grab the first-round lead on a chilly Thursday at Las Vegas Country Club. They 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.”
Standings and counting scores for Thursday’s opening round of the team competition at LIV Golf Las Vegas. 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. RANGEGOATS GC -15 (Watson 65, Wolff 65, Pieters 65)
2. CRUSHERS GC -14 (Casey 63, Lahiri 66, DeChambeau 67)
T3. SMASH GC -13 (Kokrak 65, Gooch 66, McDowell 66)
T3. 4ACES GC -13 (Varner III 63, Johnson 67, Perez 67)
T5. FIREBALLS GC -8 (Ancer 67, Puig 67, Chacarra 68)
T5. LEGION XIII -8 (Hatton 67, Surratt 67, Rahm 68)
7. TORQUE GC -7 (Muñoz 67, Niemann 68, Ortiz 68)
T8. RIPPER GC -6 (Smith 67, Herbert 68, Leishman 69)
T8. IRON HEADS GC -6 (Lee 68, Kozuma 68, Vincent 68)
10. CLEEKS GC -5 (Meronk 67, Bland 69, Samooja 69)
11. HYFLYERS GC -4 (Ogletree 67, Tringale 69, Mickelson 70)
12. MAJESTICKS GC -3 (Stenson 68, Westwood 69, Poulter 70)
13. STINGER GC -2 (Schwartzel 69, Grace 69, Burmester 70)
Varner, Casey share LIV Golf Las Vegas lead; RangeGoats enjoy big day
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Varner, Casey share LIV Golf Las Vegas lead; RangeGoats enjoy big day
- Varner and Casey each shot 7-under 63s to grab the first-round lead on a chilly Thursday at Las Vegas Country Club
- Varner finished in last place on the individual leaderboard in his debut after being traded by the RangeGoats to 4Aces GC
History-chasing Djokovic and Alcaraz to meet in Australian Open final after epic semifinal wins
- Carlos Alcaraz striving to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam
- Novak Djokovic is aiming to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title
MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic finally beat one of the two men who have been blocking his path to an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam singles title when he edged Jannik Sinner in five sets Friday to reach the Australian Open final.
To get that coveted No. 25, he’ll next have to beat the other: top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz.
They’re both chasing history in Sunday’s championship decider, with the 22-year-old Alcaraz striving to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam.
The top-ranked Alcaraz also had to come through a grueling five-setter. He fended off No. 3 Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-5 in a match that started in the warmth of the afternoon Friday and, 5 hours and 27 minutes later, became the longest semifinal ever at the Australian Open.
That pushed the start of Djokovic’s match against Sinner back a couple of hours, and the 38-year-old Djokovic finally finished off a 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win just after 1:30 a.m.
“It feels surreal,” Djokovic said of his 4-hour, 9-minute triumph. “Honestly, it feels like winning already tonight. I know I have to come back … and fight the No. 1 of the world. I just hope that I’ll have enough gas to stay toe-to-toe with him.
“That’s my desire. Let the God decide the winner.”
Djokovic was at the peak of his defensive powers, fending off 16 of the 18 breakpoints he faced against the two-time defending Australian Open champion. It ended a run of five losses to Sinner, and a run of four semifinal exits for Djokovic at the majors.
“Had many chances, couldn’t use them, and that’s the outcome,” Sinner said. “Yeah, it hurts, for sure.”
Alcaraz and Sinner have split the last eight major titles between them since Djokovic won his last title at the 2023 US Open.
Nobody knows how to win more at Melbourne Park than Djokovic. He has won all 10 times he’s contested the Australian Open final.
He said he saw Alcaraz after the first of the semifinals was over and he congratulated him on reaching his first final at Melbourne Park.
“He said sorry to delay,” Djokovic later explained. “I told him ‘I’m an old man, I need to go earlier to sleep!”
Djokovic, aiming to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title, was kept up late.
“I’m looking forward to meeting him on Sunday,” he said.
Final 4
With the top four seeds reaching the Australian Open men’s semifinals for just the fifth time, Day 13 was destined to produce some drama. The season-opening major had been a relatively slow burn, until the back-to-back five-setters lasting a combined 9 hours and 36 minutes.
Alcaraz and Zverev, the 2025 runner-up, surpassed the 2009 classic between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco as the longest ever Australian Open semifinal.
Medical timeout
Alcaraz was as close as two points from victory in the third set but was hampered by pain in his upper right leg and his medical timeout became contentious.
He said initially it didn’t feel like cramping because the pain seemed to be just in one muscle, the right adductor, and he needed an assessment.
He navigated the third and fourth sets and was behind in the fifth after dropping serve in the first game. He kept up the pressure but didn’t break back until Zverev was serving for the match. He then won the last four games.
“I think physically we just pushed each other to the limit today. We pushed our bodies to the limit,” Alcaraz said. “Just really, really happy to get the win, that I came back. I just rank this one in the top position of one of the best matches that I have ever won.”
Believe
Asked how he was able to recover despite being so close to defeat, Alcaraz admitted he was struggling but said kept “believing, believing, all the time.”
“I’ve been in these situations, I’ve been in these kinds of matches before, so I knew what I had to do,” he said. “I had to put my heart into the match. I think I did it. I fought until the last ball.”
Zverev was demonstrably upset about the time out out in the third set, taking it up with a tournament supervisor, when his rival was given the three-minute break for treatment and a massage on the leg.
After the match, he maintained that he didn’t think it was right, but he didn’t think it should overshadow the match.
“I don’t want to talk about this right now, because I think this is one of the best battles there ever was in Australia,” he said “It doesn’t deserve to be the topic now.”
