MIAMI PREVIEW: DJ SHINING FOR 4ACES GC ENTERING DORAL
Team: 4Aces Golf Club
Previous event team finish: 8th at LIV Golf Hong Kong
Season-long team standings: 7th
Top finisher from previous event: Harold Varner III, T-15
Fun stat: Red-hot Dustin Johnson is averaging 4.75 birdies per round, which is tied for the fourth-best mark in 2024.
Preview
MIAMI - Through four events, 4Aces Golf Club has shown the ability to challenge for trophies while also picking its spots. It is, after all, a season-long marathon and not a sprint.
With that, sitting in seventh place in the team standings is a perfect pouncing position entering LIV Golf Miami, where team members have seen tons of success and could make a big jump if history is any indication.
Captain Dustin Johnson and his team won the inaugural Team Championship in 2022 at Trump National Doral Golf Club. As an individual, Johnson won a World Golf Championship here and is as familiar with the course and weather conditions as anyone. And it doesn’t hurt that Johnson lives in South Florida and will be nicely rested following a break after events in Jeddah and Hong Kong.
Johnson is also looking to get his game dialed in with the Masters just one week away. The two-time major champion won the 2020 Masters and will leave Doral for Augusta, Georgia, as one of the favorites.
As for LIV Golf Miami, Johnson enters third in the individual standings, thanks mainly to a fast start to open the season. The two-time major champion finished T-5 in the season-opener at Mayakoba and followed it up by winning LIV Golf Vegas with an incredible late birdie charge. Johnson finished just outside the top 20 in Jeddah and Hong Kong, but his comfort level at Doral lines up perfectly for a high finish or a trophy hoisting.
Some motivation for the overall team might come from last season when it entered Miami as the defending Team Champions and was one of four teams to earn a bye for Friday’s quarterfinal round of matches. 4Aces GC, however, ended up finishing fourth in the final results.
Harold Varner III is T-38 in the individual standings and is coming off his best finish of the season, a T-15 in Hong Kong. Teammate Pat Perez has seen a resurgence in 2024 and has fond memories of Doral, where he has seen success throughout different portions of his professional career, including in 2022 as a LIV Golf player. Perez is 36th in the individual standings and had a T-15 finish in Las Vegas.
Teammate Patrick Reed is poised for his breakout event of 2024. His best finish came at the season-opening event in Mayakoba, where he had a T-17. But Doral should bring back the good vibes. Like Johnson, Reed won a World Golf Championship event at this venue, and it fits his style of play.