Robert TheodorsonChampions Dominate the Opening Round
Sergio Garcia (T1; 4-under par) shares the lead with Dustin Johnson (T1; 4-under par) LIV Chicago after opening round scores of 67 for the Fireballs and 4 Aces captains.
Beautiful but windy conditions seemed to favour the elder statesmen of LIV, with most of the Top 5 being dominated by former major championship winners including: (T3; 3-under par) Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, and Jon Rahm.
For Garcia, the bulk of the day was fantastic, including a run of four straight birdies. Unfortunately, a miscue into a swampy area on 15 and a misplayed last hole on 16 resulted in consecutive bogeys to finish the day.
| “I’ve been working very hard on all parts of my game,” Garcia said. “Today I felt like I hit the ball pretty much as well as I hit the ball at the beginning of the year. … I hit several shots very, very close, so obviously on the conditions that we had today, if you have five or six tap-ins for birdie, that helps a lot.” |
The Race to Number One
With all eyes on reigning individual champion Jon Rahm and pre-tournament presumptive favourite Joaquin Niemann, it was the latter who put himself in a precarious position, falling to T45 with a score of 3-over par.
For Niemann, such a deficit to overcome has become commonplace, often resulting in an outright win thanks to elite performances on Saturdays and Sundays.
While Rahm will focus on his own game and simultaneously seek his first individual win of the season, all Niemann needs to accomplish is a Top 10 finish to retain the top spot going into Indianapolis. Should the weekend playout in this manner, LIV’s final tournament would be unexpected must-see-TV.
Can Bryson’s Crushers Repeat?
On the team front, Dean Burmester (T3; 3-under par) Charl Schwartzel’s (T9; 2-under par) efforts helped Stinger take sole possession of first place at 6-under par.
Garcia’s last two dropped shots sunk the Fireballs to second place, though only one stroke behind Stinger. A podium finish in Chicago would all but assure at worst a 3rd place finish by season’s end.
The Crushers, who are looking to repeat as champions at Bolingbrook, are tied with DJ’s 4 Aces with both squads standing at 3-under par.
“Joaco has played pretty bad golf before in the first round and come back and almost won tournaments,” DeChambeau said. “He’s incredible out here. I think he’ll do fine the next couple days.”
“For me, I’m just going to focus on playing the best golf I can. … Going to continue to work hard to keep that ball in play and make some good putts when I need to. If I win this week, I’m one step closer to getting that title. But I want to win for the Crushers as well and see where our team stacks up.”
For the Crushers, who won three straight earlier in the season, a repeat championship at LIV Chicago (and a non-podium finish for Legion XIII) would vault DeChambeau’s team closer to the first spot with one tournament (LIV Indianapolis) left to play.
