“Kind of a crazy situation” – LIV Golf Andalucia co-leader Jason Kokrak reveals he almost didn’t play this week

Day 1 of LIV Golf Andalucia ended with Smash GC’s Jason Kokrak leading the leaderboard alongside 4Aces GC skipper Dustin Johnson. Interestingly, Kokrak being on the LIV Golf Andalucia lead is pure luck as he almost didn’t play at the event.

According to the player, his original travel plans from his home in Ohio to Spain were faced with multiple issues causing uncertainty about his participation. The golfer was originally set to fly from Cleveland to Newark, followed by a flight from Newark to Malaga, the biggest airport near Valderrama.

However, this plan was scrapped due to a flight cancellation. Forced to change his plans, the LIV Golf star flew from Cleveland to Detroit, then Detroit to Paris, then Paris to Malaga to reach the venue in Valderrama.

Kokrak’s stress level was over the roof as his travel time increased just hours ahead of his LIV Golf Andalucia outing. This was later made worse as his luggage – particularly his clubs – was also lost on its way to the event. The 38-year-old made quite the understatement as he dubbed the incident as being “kind of a crazy situation.”

Speaking about his messy travel situation to Spain, Jason Kokrak slammed the airlines. He was quoted as saying by LIV Golf:

“Just people not showing up for work, driving the jet bridge – it’s unfathomable. I understand you have certain situations, but every single time. I don't get it. I think the airlines are at a point where they're basically banking on the plane flying faster to make up time for stupidity."

Furthermore, he opened up on his luggage getting stuck at the airport with no intention of changing locations, just hours ahead of the event.

Commenting on his missing bags, the LIV golfer said:

“I thought my Air Tags were broken, because my luggage hadn’t moved in over a day.

“Kind of a crazy situation,” added Kokrak.

The bags were stuck in Paris. Kokrak, along with his coach Drew Steckel, hatched a backup plan and found a local golf shop 20 minutes away to get new clubs.

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Jason Kokrak reunites with his golf clubs just 20 hours before LIV Golf Andalucia

However, the golfer was just in luck. Just hours before the event, the girlfriend of Nick Heinen, the caddie for Smash teammate Matthew Wolff, called Kokrak to inform him that she found his club travel bag lying around at the airport she was in. She grabbed the bag for him and delivered them to Kokrak by 5 pm on Thursday.

Kokrak finally reunited with his clubs, just 20 hours before his tee time at the LIV Golf Andalucia. The golfer teed up right on time and played a strong round, matching Dustin Johnson’s score.

The top two shared the lead playing -4 at Real Club Valderrama. However, Kokrak was ahead of Johnson on some terms, playing six birdies and two bogeys, compared to his competitor’s five bogeys and one birdie.