We are up in the Northeast formulating Mixed Berry and attending lectures on relevant topics at several universities in the area, we decided to take the opportunity to attend the "Boston" LIV Golf event. Boston is in quotes bc The International Golf Course is actually about an hour west of downtown Boston. We made the drive out there on Friday to see how these LIV Golf events stack up against our usual PGA or KornFerry tournaments. LIV did not disappoint.
Upon arriving in Bolton (the Actual location) we followed signage to park in the Bolton fairgrounds and got on a large shuttle bus to the course. Parking was free. Even in the brief walk through the entry gate, the music, the scenery, and the vibe were elevated from a typical golf experience.
We walked directly to the practice facility and saw first time LIV-ers Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Harold Varner III (HV3) amongst a few others putting on the crowded practice green. The green and range were packed bc all the LIV golfers tee off at the same time in a shotgun format. This has its benefits; You get to see ALL the golfers in a compact span of time (abt 4hrs) instead of spending all day at the course watching every group start off at the first hole.
The music was pumping right through the opening tee shots and beyond & the scene at the first tee was LIT. Several Navy SEALs parachuted onto the first hole in dramatic fashion to the applause of a few hundred onlookers. Quite the "kickoff" if I do say so myself. "Murica!" was heard several times, lol
We followed Cam Smith for a bit and he seemed a lil squirrely with the driver and longer clubs at first but seemed to settle in over the round. It was a similar tournament for LIV newcomer Harold Varner III, who showed a few nerves early but caught some momentum in his second and third rounds. Both of these two and newbie Joaquin Niemann did very well in their first LIV event but the day and most of the tournament was dominated by the Four Aces.
Consisting of Talor Gooch, Dustin Johnson, Pat Perez and Patrick Reed, the 4 Aces have won all 3 Team Titles in each of the LIV events so far. Talor was focused from the jump and once DJ started with his wedge game, the Aces jumped up the leaderboard and stayed there until the Final Round. The Crushers actually had a chance to win on Sunday but ended up in second after contributions from P Reed and DJ. The crescendo was when DJ dunked his eagle putt to win on the 18th hole (first playoff hole) & the crowd went WILD!!
Overall it was an incredible event and I would recommend any golf fan attend one of these LIV Events in the future. The format feels ok but where the PGA Tour focuses on their player's perks, it seemed LIV is more focused on the fan experience, and as a fan, we love that! I'm talking about Navy SEALs parachuting onto the first hole to start the tournament, music pumpin, fireworks, LOTS of free stuff and although the crowd chatter got a bit annoying (ppl run out of "witty" things to say), we didn't see anything outside the parameters of the hypest PGA event, the Waste Management Open.
Dunno when we'll get the chance to see another LIV event but if we are in the proximity of one, we'll definitely go.
We'll see y'all out there!