Australians eye happy homecoming at Adelaide's LIV Golf

Cameron Smith doubts the second LIV Golf tournament in Adelaide will be as “insane” on the course.

Off the course, maybe.

But on The Grange in Adelaide’s west, Smith doubts the feats of American Talor Gooch can be repeated.

Amid the hyped sell-out crowds last year, Gooch produced serious golfing excellence: consecutive 10-under 62s to open the tournament.

Gooch won by three shots in an achievement which Smith salutes – and studies.

“I think what Goochy did last year was pretty insane,” Smith said ahead of Friday’s opening round.

“I don’t think we’ll see that again.

“We were just looking at his stats actually and what he did and trying to basically mimic that for this year.

“But, yeah, looking at what he did, it was pretty insane golf.

“I think we’ll get somewhere around where he finished but those first couple of rounds, I wouldn’t expect 20 under to be leading.”

Gooch ultimately finished 19 under to win the LIV’s inaugural Adelaide tournament with Smith tied for third some four shots back.

The Australian covets another win on home soil and the world-renowned putter has already noted one aspect of The Grange which has changed for his better.

“The greens seem like they have a little bit more bounce in them this year,”  Smith said.

“They were kind of almost a little bit crumbly last year, it was hard to gauge how far the ball was going to run out.

“They definitely seem a lot more consistent.”

Smith leads his all Australian Ripper team of Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert aiming to embrace their home favouritism.

The Rippers enter Adelaide in eighth of 12 places in the teams standings while Chile’s Joaquin Niemann tops the individual table.

Niemann has already won twice this season to collect $US9.5 million ($A14.6m) and leads from Spain’s former world No.1 Jon Rahm and South African Dean Bermester, who won last start in Miami.

Australia’s Leishman, who logged his best LIV finish of tied-fourth in Miami, said an Adelaide triumph from any of the home-country Ripper crew would be one to savour.

“It would be pretty crazy if any one of us won – obviously, we’re all individually hoping it’s us,” Leishman said.

“But it’s the biggest tournament we play all year and it’s in our backyard.

“To win it would certainly be a career highlight and a pretty big few days to follow, I would think.”