For the moment, at least, there’s some suspense on who will emerge as the individual champion on the LIV Golf Tour. With five wins in the first 11 tournaments Chile’s Joaquin Niemann would seem a shoo-in for the season-long honor with just this week’s LIV/Chicago event at Bolingbrook Golf Club and next week’s event in Indianapolis remaining.
Niemann had a big lead on second place Jon Rahm, the defending champion, entering the Bolingbrook stop, but Niemann showed his vulnerability in a big way in Friday’s first round.
Playing with Rahm, he made a triple bogey seven on the eighth hole and stumbled in with a 3-over-par 74. So, Niemann goes into Saturday’s second round in a tie for 45th place. He beat only seven in the 54-man field in the first round.
Neither Rahm nor Niemann were doing much talking Friday. Of more immediate significance was how LIV’s biggest name stars performed.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson shot 4-under-par 67s to take the lead after the first 18 holes and six players, most notably Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Rahm, were just one stroke behind. (Also posting 68s were Dean Burmester and Tyrrell Hatton).
Johnson was the clearly dominant player in 2022, when the Saudi-backed circuit made its debut. His game tailed off after that, however, and the American star finished dead last in LIV’s previous tournament in the United Kingdom two weeks ago.
“In the UK I wasn’t nearly as bad as my score,’’ insisted Johnson. “I feel I’m always close to getting my game back. It just takes a couple of shots here and there to get me going again.’’
He got them on Friday, and it also didn’t hurt that his brother, Austin, was back as his caddie. Austin had been missing in action for a while, and Dustin admitted “I’d prefer having AJ on my bag.’’
And then there was Mickelson who, with Johnson, were the key signees for LIV when they made controversial decisions to break from the PGA Tour. Mickelson hasn’t won on the LIV circuit yet but could have his best finish with two strong rounds this weekend. He strung four birdies in a row, had five in his first 16 holes and was tied for the lead briefly on Friday.
“I just need to finish rounds off better,’’ said Mickelson. “I’m trying to get back to the top 10 (on the LIV standings). I want to finish this year off right. At 55 that’d be a good accomplishment against competition like this. It would mean a lot to me.’’
Garcia has been searching for putting help, and he brought back one of his old blades for this week. While it worked Friday, it may not stay in his bag for long.
“I have a new one coming in the next couple weeks, and I’m excited about it,’’ said Garcia. “We’re always searching for things to help us improve.’’
Meanwhile, Rahm and DeChambeau – second and third in the battle for the season individual honors – put themselves in position to challenge Niemann in the final 10 days of the season.
“Joaco (Niemann) has played pretty bad golf before in the first round and come back and almost won tournaments,’’ said DeChambeau. “He’s incredible out here. He’ll do fine the next couple days.’’
In the team competition captain Louis Oosthuizen’s Stingers were 6-under par and one shot ahead of Garcia’s Fireballs. DeChambeau’s Crushers and Johnson’s 4Aces were tied for third, three strokes behind the Stingers.
