MIAMI PREVIEW: RANGEGOATS GC HAS GOOD VIBES AT DORAL
Team: RangeGoats Golf Club
Previous event team finish: 11th at LIV Golf Hong Kong
Season-long team standings: 8th
Top finisher from previous event: Bubba Watson, Peter Uihlein (both T-29)
Fun stat: Thomas Pieters and Matthew Wolff are in the top six in driving distance in 2024. Pieters is fifth at 309.3 yards per drive while Wolff is tied for sixth (308.8).
Preview
MIAMI - A return to a course that has been good to RangeGoats Golf Club in the past could serve as the kickstart the team is looking for as the LIV Golf League heads back to the United States.
Trump National Doral is the venue once again for LIV Golf Miami, and the positive vibes are everywhere for the team. Last season, RangeGoats GC made a huge jump up the leaderboard at the Team Championship in Miami and finished second, just two shots shy of eventual winner Crushers Golf Club.
And while the roster is a bit different in 2024, the layout is one that still fits the team. Doral, also known as the Blue Monster, is where big hitters can thrive. Case in point is RangeGoats GC Captain Bubba Watson, who shot a bogey-free 5-under 67 on the final day last season to lead his team.
“The RangeGoats came out of nowhere,” Watson, a two-time Masters champion, said at the time. “We played great. We’ve got to improve a little bit. But gosh, finished second for the year. What a great place.”
The team enters Miami eighth in the season-long team standings, highlighted by a podium finish (third place) at LIV Golf Las Vegas. Watson has done his part on and off the course. He said he rededicated himself to sharpening his game in the offseason while adding two new team members and forging a positive team culture. He has checked off those two boxes through four events as he and his teammates have thrived inside and outside of the ropes.
The team’s new faces - good friends Matthew Wolff and Peter Uihlein - are two of professional golf’s biggest hitters who shine at Doral. Uihlein is T-13 in the individual standings and had a T-2 at LIV Golf Las Vegas, while Wolff has seen a resurgence from 2023 and is currently No. 23 in the individual standings, including a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas Country Club.
Playing on other teams in 2023, Uihlein shot 3-under 69 at Doral on the final day last season and Wolff shot even-par 72, which were better-than-average scores compared to the others in the field.
Thomas Pieters might be the key this week. It’s been a little bit of a slow start and his best finish is T-30 in Las Vegas, but he thrives at Doral and shot 2-under 70 on the final day in 2023.
In the end, the overall strength of the team is what is expected to shine most at the Blue Monster. And that is distance. Consider this: all four players are inside the top 21 in driving distance average in 2024.
Watson also might have extra motivation this week. Doral, players said, is an ideal course to get their games dialed in ahead of the Masters next week. Watson, who has pulled on the green jacket twice, said it's not just the course, but also the conditions.
"It's perfect for managing your golf ball," Watson said Wednesday. "That's what you have to do at Augusta, put the ball in the right spots ... there's difficulty on every hole out here. With the wind up, the wind gets swirling sometimes. There's a lot of things you can take from this and learn from and try to manage it, and what you need to work on going into next week as well."