Report: Dustin Johnson Making a Change to 4 Aces…and It’s Not Pat Perez

When explaining the long-term team concept for LIV Golf, CEO Greg Norman said that the captains would be treating the teams like professional sports franchises.

Proof of that is coming just days after the 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Series wrapped up, as 4 Aces team captain Dustin Johnson is making a change.

ESPN is reporting that Johnson is poaching Peter Uihlein from the Smash team led by Brooks Koepka, and he will be replacing Talor Gooch.

Report: Dustin Johnson adds top-three LIV Golf player to 4Aces team just days after winning team title https://t.co/qLKvRKaMJU

— Golfweek (@golfweek) November 2, 2022

Gooch will be heading to the Niblicks GC team headed up by Bubba Watson. The former two-time Masters winner didn’t play in LIV this year while he recovered from injuries, but he will be debuting in 2023 and also said he will be changing the name of his team.

The 4 Aces of Johnson, Gooch, Patrick Reed, and Pat Perez won the team championship event in Miami last week and split a $16 million purse. They also won three of the seven team portions of the seven previous LIV tournaments this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gooch departing is somewhat of a surprise given that performance-wise, Perez didn’t finish in the individual top 15 of any event and many times, his score didn’t even qualify for his team. But Perez did come up clutch this weekend at Doral, and sounded off after there were many critics of his $8 million in prize winnings with LIV.

Uihlein is a former top-ranked amateur golfer but struggled in his time on the PGA Tour, not scoring a top 25 all season on the PGA Tour. But he thrived in LIV, finishing runner-up twice and was third in the individual points standings, taking home a total of nearly $13 million in seven events.

The report said that Perez and Reed are expected to remain with the 4 Aces in 2023.

Cover Image Via Twitter