After the conclusion of the second round of LIV Miami, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman made a bold claim.

• Related: Brooks Koepka and Sergio Garcia make significant equipment changes as 2024 Masters looms

“Talor Gooch is the best iron player in the game of golf in the past 20 years that I’ve personally witnessed,” said the two-time major champion.

Big endorsement of Talor Gooch from The Shark. "Talor Gooch is the best iron player in the game of golf in the past 20 years that I've personally witnessed" pic.twitter.com/XCdLpCbqwh

— LIV Golf Enthusiast (@LIVGolfEnth) April 6, 2024

As one might expect, most golf fans disagreed with Norman’s assessment.

Tiger might like a word ?????

— Andrew Kirby (@AndrewKirbyGolf) April 6, 2024

Everybody knows Tiger is the best in history. No wonder Greg is not liked by so many.

— Noall (@noall) April 7, 2024

What kind of champagne do they drink over there?

— JIMMY MINIMALIST (@HotwingsNbeer_) April 7, 2024

Michael Kim, who has been a harsh critic of LIV, chimed in as well.

LOL

— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) April 7, 2024

Gooch, of course, won’t be at The Masters this week so he won’t have the chance to affirm Greg’s claim on golf’s biggest stage.

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Ahead of the highly anticipated 2024 Masters, some notable LIV golfers have made some changes with their putters.

Brooks Koepka, who’s used a Scotty Cameron Teryllium Tour Newport 2 for the past handful of years, has what looks to be a Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 in the bag this week at LIV Doral.

Koepka has been struggling on the greens this season, but it’s still a bit of a surprise to see him switch to a mallet style putter so close to the season’s first major.

Koepka finished with -4.4 strokes gained with his new Phantom following a tough week in Miami.

With the poor performance on the greens at Doral, it’s worth monitoring whether or not he switches back to his traditional Scottie Cameron at Augusta.

Sergio Garcia, who lost out in a playoff at LIV Doral, also made a notable putter switch last week.

The Spaniard asked Scotty Cameron to refurbish the 1999 Scotty Cameron he used as a rookie on the PGA Tour. Garcia used the putter when he went head-to-head with Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah as a 19-year-old. He also used the putter in his first Ryder Cup.

The move proved very successful for the Spaniard, with Garcia gaining 7.1 strokes putting in Miami.

Perhaps there is still some magic in that that old Scotty Cameron blade for Sergio Garcia with a trip to Augusta National looming.

*Featured Image courtesy of LIV Golf*

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On Thursday, Jordan Spieth shot an opening round 73 (+1) at the Valero Texas Open. In typical Spieth fashion, the 73 was relatively unconventional with circles and squares all over the scorecard.

On the front nine, Spieth four bogeys and two birdies to make the turn in 38 (+2). On the back nine, things got even more interesting. The three-time major champion made a double-bogey on the par-5 14th followed by an incredible hole-in-one on the par 3-16th.

? SPIETH ACE ?@JordanSpieth makes a hole-in-one on the 199-yard par-3 16th hole @ValeroTXOpen.

(Presented by @CocaCola) pic.twitter.com/kHZKIxKiIZ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 4, 2024

After the round, Spieth said “I’m playing so much better than I’ve been scoring”.

He added that he “drove the living piss out of the ball today”, which caused frustration because one bad drive on 15 created a big number. Spieth then said, “my driving stats don’t look the way they actually feel”.

Jordan Spieth: “I drove the living piss out the ball today..”

(Via: @pmcdonaldCBS)

pic.twitter.com/qr13UlSJzZ

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) April 5, 2024

Spieth will try to put it all together in his second round on Friday morning at TPC San Antonio.

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