Staff WriterThe first thing you noticed at LIV Hong Kong on Thursday was the sound: not the usual groan of golfers wrestling with a hard old course, but the steady click of birdie putts dropping like they’d been pre-approved. Fanling had been softened by rain, the greens were receptive, and the scoring looked like it had been left in the tumble dryer a little too long.
Carlos Ortiz didn’t just take advantage — he practically signed the course’s guest book with a flourish. His approach shot from 167 yards at his final hole came in on a line so straight it briefly teased the most dangerous thought in golf: what if this goes in? It didn’t, but it finished inside two feet, and the tap-in sealed a 10-under 60 and a two-shot lead after the opening round at Hong Kong Golf Club.
Not only was it Ortiz’s lowest round in his professional tournament career, it was also the third time in LIV Golf history that a player has shot 60. The only rounds lower remain Bryson DeChambeau’s 58 and two 59s from Ortiz’s own Torque GC teammates Joaquin Niemann and Sebastián Muñoz — which is a tidy little reminder that Torque doesn’t just travel well, it travels sharp.
“It was a great round,” said Ortiz. “… I think I hit it very close, like four or five times I just tapped it in. That doesn’t happen much, so it’s awesome when you don’t even have to get the putter out. Very pleased.”
Fanling Goes Soft, Ortiz Goes Surgical
The first thing you noticed at LIV Hong Kong on Thursday was the sound: not the usual groan of golfers wrestling with a hard old course, but the steady click of birdie putts dropping like they’d been pre-approved. Fanling had been softened by rain, the greens were receptive, and the scoring looked like it had been left in the tumble dryer a little too long. Carlos Ortiz didn’t just take advantage — he practically signed the course’s guest book with a flourish. His approach shot from 167 yards at his final hole came in on a line so straight it briefly teased the most dangerous thought in golf: what if this goes in? It didn’t, but it finished inside two feet, and the tap-in sealed a 10-under 60 and a two-shot lead after the opening round at Hong Kong Golf Club. Not only was it Ortiz’s lowest round in his professional tournament career, it was also the third time in LIV Golf history that a player has shot 60. The only rounds lower remain Bryson DeChambeau’s 58 and two 59s from Ortiz’s own Torque GC teammates Joaquin Niemann and Sebastián Muñoz — which is a tidy little reminder that Torque doesn’t just travel well, it travels sharp. “It was a great round,” said Ortiz. “… I think I hit it very close, like four or five times I just tapped it in. That doesn’t happen much, so it’s awesome when you don’t even have to get the putter out. Very pleased.” Fanling Goes Soft, Ortiz Goes Surgical Ortiz’s round was a study in momentum — the kind that starts quietly and then suddenly you’re wondering whether the scoreboard has developed a glitch. He was just 2 under through nine and had even made a bogey at the par-4 8th. Then came a key escape at the 9th — an up-and-down beside the cart path that kept the round breathing. From there, it was all forward motion: three straight birdies at 10, 11 and 12 (including a chip-in at 11), then an eagle at the par-5 13th after knocking his second shot to five feet. That’s not “going low”; that’s leaning on the accelerator and checking if the pedals are still attached. “Obviously I played great coming in,” said Ortiz, seeking his second individual LIV Golf victory. And because LIV is never just about one man’s scorecard, Ortiz’s 60 also gave Torque GC the early team lead at 21 under, two shots ahead of Smash GC. When your opener shoots 60, the team competition starts feeling less like support and more like keeping the car between the white lines. Burmester Right There, With Weather in Mind Dean Burmester sits second after a 62, and there’s a particular sort of confidence that comes from having already nearly done the job here. His score matched the previous round he’d played at Fanling — the one that ended with him finishing runner-up last season behind Fireballs GC Captain Sergio Garcia. Burmester described his round as “pretty flawless” aside from what he called a mental error on the ninth hole after taking the wrong club off the tee. Still, he kept collecting birdies without the desperate, twitchy feeling of chasing a moving target. “I’m very proud of the way I kind of just hung together and kept pushing in birdies,” Burmester said. “I saw a lot of guys making birdies, and I managed to do the same. Normally when that happens you feel like you’ve got to chase, and I never felt like I was doing that. I just felt like I was within myself, so it’s one of those good in-the-zone days for sure.” He also offered the most important forecast of the week — not from a weather app, but from the veteran’s gut. “As you can see by the scoring, it’s playing softer and a lot easier than it generally is,” Burmester said. “But I know Saturday and Sunday, the wind is going to come up, so I think that’ll toughen the course up. It’ll dry out and then we’ll get the true experience of Fanling.” Translation: enjoy the birdies now, because Fanling has a habit of remembering who you are when it firms up. Garcia’s Chessboard, Not a Driving Range Sergio Garcia shot 63 and extended his streak of bogey-free holes at Hong Kong Golf Club to 63 — which is the sort of symmetry that makes statisticians purr. Even more telling: he hit all 18 greens in regulation, the kind of clean ball-striking that turns a classic course into a personal rehearsal space. Garcia has always looked comfortable at Fanling because it asks questions rather than demanding a bench press. “I’ve always said it, that I’ve always enjoyed the courses that make you think, not the courses that you get on the tee and you know you have to hit driver as hard as you can and there’s nothing else to do,” said Garcia, seeking the 39th victory of his legendary career. “Obviously these are the kind of courses that I enjoy playing. These are the kind of courses that I feel most comfortable on.” In other words: Fanling is a conversation, not a shouting match — and Garcia speaks the language. Perez Drops an Ace, and the Second Hole Plays Nice If Ortiz provided the headline, Victor Perez delivered the punchline — the good kind, the one that makes your playing partners briefly forget they’re supposed to be competitive. The Cleeks GC man recorded the 13th ace in LIV Golf history — and the first this season — by holing a tee shot at the 149-yard second. “I was trying to hit just a stock gap wedge, and it ended up going a little more right,” said Perez, playing in just his third LIV Golf tournament since joining the league in the offseason. “The ball was in the air, and I was playing with Harold (Varner III), and Harold goes like, go in. Then it was in. It happened so quickly. The ball didn’t roll, either. It kind of was just like, ba-bap, and it was in. It was like, yeah, great bonus.” Perez tried to count his competitive hole-in-ones and sounded like a man attempting to remember passwords from 2011. Perez said he was “pretty sure” that Thursday’s hole-in-one was his fourth in competition. “I have one on the Challenge Tour, one on DP World, one in the U.S. Open and one here, and I might have one more in a tournament,” Perez said, “but I probably have 10 or 11 (overall). But I don’t know. It’s terrible.” Worth noting: four of the league’s aces have now come at Hong Kong Golf Club, and three at that same second hole — which, on Thursday, played to an average of 2.65, making it the fourth easiest par-3 round in LIV history. In softer conditions, even the golf course joins in. The Numbers: Low Scores Everywhere, Pressure Still Pending Thursday wasn’t just “good scoring” — it was a full-on traffic jam in the 60s. Twenty-eight players shot 67 or better, including Anthony Kim with a 67 in his first start since winning LIV Golf Adelaide last month. Kim started quickly, then cooled, and finished with a watery approach on the last for a bogey — his first in 45 holes. Elsewhere, the opening-round leaderboard reads like a who’s-who of power, precision and the occasional surprise: Scott Vincent posted the lowest round ever for a Wild Card player (63), while names like Bubba Watson, Tyrrell Hatton and Thomas Detry hovered within striking distance. And Ortiz? He didn’t just lead — he did it with 22 putts, his best single-round putting performance in LIV Golf. That’s usually the difference between “nice round” and “don’t look at my scorecard, it’s still warm.” What It Means for the Weekend at LIV Hong Kong The opening round of LIV Hong Kong gave us the soft-course fireworks: wedges dialled, approaches tucked, putts falling, and a leaderboard that looks generous rather than settled. But Burmester’s warning hangs over all of it. If the wind arrives and the course firms up, Fanling becomes less of a welcome mat and more of a bouncer. Ortiz has the lead, Torque has the team advantage, Garcia looks annoyingly comfortable, and Burmester is positioned like a man who remembers exactly how close he came last time — and how it felt walking away second. Thursday was the invitation. The weekend, by the sound of it, will be the exam. Is this conversation helpful so far?Ortiz’s round was a study in momentum — the kind that starts quietly and then suddenly you’re wondering whether the scoreboard has developed a glitch.
He was just 2 under through nine and had even made a bogey at the par-4 8th. Then came a key escape at the 9th — an up-and-down beside the cart path that kept the round breathing. From there, it was all forward motion: three straight birdies at 10, 11 and 12 (including a chip-in at 11), then an eagle at the par-5 13th after knocking his second shot to five feet. That’s not “going low”; that’s leaning on the accelerator and checking if the pedals are still attached.
“Obviously I played great coming in,” said Ortiz, seeking his second individual LIV Golf victory.
And because LIV is never just about one man’s scorecard, Ortiz’s 60 also gave Torque GC the early team lead at 21 under, two shots ahead of Smash GC. When your opener shoots 60, the team competition starts feeling less like support and more like keeping the car between the white lines.
Burmester Right There, With Weather in Mind
Dean Burmester sits second after a 62, and there’s a particular sort of confidence that comes from having already nearly done the job here. His score matched the previous round he’d played at Fanling — the one that ended with him finishing runner-up last season behind Fireballs GC Captain Sergio Garcia.
Burmester described his round as “pretty flawless” aside from what he called a mental error on the ninth hole after taking the wrong club off the tee. Still, he kept collecting birdies without the desperate, twitchy feeling of chasing a moving target.
“I’m very proud of the way I kind of just hung together and kept pushing in birdies,” Burmester said. “I saw a lot of guys making birdies, and I managed to do the same. Normally when that happens you feel like you’ve got to chase, and I never felt like I was doing that. I just felt like I was within myself, so it’s one of those good in-the-zone days for sure.”
He also offered the most important forecast of the week — not from a weather app, but from the veteran’s gut.
“As you can see by the scoring, it’s playing softer and a lot easier than it generally is,” Burmester said. “But I know Saturday and Sunday, the wind is going to come up, so I think that’ll toughen the course up. It’ll dry out and then we’ll get the true experience of Fanling.”
Translation: enjoy the birdies now, because Fanling has a habit of remembering who you are when it firms up.
Garcia’s Chessboard, Not a Driving Range
Sergio Garcia shot 63 and extended his streak of bogey-free holes at Hong Kong Golf Club to 63 — which is the sort of symmetry that makes statisticians purr. Even more telling: he hit all 18 greens in regulation, the kind of clean ball-striking that turns a classic course into a personal rehearsal space.
Garcia has always looked comfortable at Fanling because it asks questions rather than demanding a bench press.
“I’ve always said it, that I’ve always enjoyed the courses that make you think, not the courses that you get on the tee and you know you have to hit driver as hard as you can and there’s nothing else to do,” said Garcia, seeking the 39th victory of his legendary career. “Obviously these are the kind of courses that I enjoy playing. These are the kind of courses that I feel most comfortable on.”
In other words: Fanling is a conversation, not a shouting match — and Garcia speaks the language.
Perez Drops an Ace, and the Second Hole Plays Nice
If Ortiz provided the headline, Victor Perez delivered the punchline — the good kind, the one that makes your playing partners briefly forget they’re supposed to be competitive. The Cleeks GC man recorded the 13th ace in LIV Golf history — and the first this season — by holing a tee shot at the 149-yard second.
“I was trying to hit just a stock gap wedge, and it ended up going a little more right,” said Perez, playing in just his third LIV Golf tournament since joining the league in the offseason. “The ball was in the air, and I was playing with Harold (Varner III), and Harold goes like, go in. Then it was in. It happened so quickly. The ball didn’t roll, either. It kind of was just like, ba-bap, and it was in. It was like, yeah, great bonus.”
Perez tried to count his competitive hole-in-ones and sounded like a man attempting to remember passwords from 2011.
Perez said he was “pretty sure” that Thursday’s hole-in-one was his fourth in competition.
“I have one on the Challenge Tour, one on DP World, one in the U.S. Open and one here, and I might have one more in a tournament,” Perez said, “but I probably have 10 or 11 (overall). But I don’t know. It’s terrible.”
Worth noting: four of the league’s aces have now come at Hong Kong Golf Club, and three at that same second hole — which, on Thursday, played to an average of 2.65, making it the fourth easiest par-3 round in LIV history. In softer conditions, even the golf course joins in.
The Numbers: Low Scores Everywhere, Pressure Still Pending
Thursday wasn’t just “good scoring” — it was a full-on traffic jam in the 60s. Twenty-eight players shot 67 or better, including Anthony Kim with a 67 in his first start since winning LIV Golf Adelaide last month. Kim started quickly, then cooled, and finished with a watery approach on the last for a bogey — his first in 45 holes.
Elsewhere, the opening-round leaderboard reads like a who’s-who of power, precision and the occasional surprise: Scott Vincent posted the lowest round ever for a Wild Card player (63), while names like Bubba Watson, Tyrrell Hatton and Thomas Detry hovered within striking distance.
And Ortiz? He didn’t just lead — he did it with 22 putts, his best single-round putting performance in LIV Golf. That’s usually the difference between “nice round” and “don’t look at my scorecard, it’s still warm.”
What It Means for the Weekend at LIV Hong Kong
The opening round of LIV Hong Kong gave us the soft-course fireworks: wedges dialled, approaches tucked, putts falling, and a leaderboard that looks generous rather than settled. But Burmester’s warning hangs over all of it. If the wind arrives and the course firms up, Fanling becomes less of a welcome mat and more of a bouncer.
Ortiz has the lead, Torque has the team advantage, Garcia looks annoyingly comfortable, and Burmester is positioned like a man who remembers exactly how close he came last time — and how it felt walking away second. Thursday was the invitation. The weekend, by the sound of it, will be the exam.
