Maybe it was the weather – 91 degrees with winds gusting to 22 miles per hour. Maybe it was the gallery. Though no attendance figures were given it was most certainly the largest of the 14 rounds played by the LIV Tour in Chicago over the past four years.
Whatever the reason, the leaderboard at LIV/Chicago changed quickly, and dramatically, in Round 2 on Saturday. Two long-time stars, Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson, held the first-round lead and Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm were right behind them.
Those five, all among the biggest names in golf, were barely evident on the leaderboard after nine holes in the second round. In that short time the hardly household names in the spotlight were Dean Burmester of South Africa, Josele Ballester of Spain and Richard Bland of England.
Burmester had a win on the LIV circuit last year. Ballester, at 21, is one of the circuit’s youngest player. He didn’t play in the first eight tournaments of the season and didn’t break par in the next three after that. Bland, 48, is one of LIV’s oldest players and has been hanging on for three years.
They were the stars of Round 2. Burmester shot 65 to claim the 36-hole lead at 9-under-par 133. Ballester carded a 66 and is at 7-under 135. Brand hung tough with them until a late double bogey dropped in him into a tie for seventh place.
“Playing with Phil (Mickelson) for two days in a row was special,’’ said Burmester. “The crowds are so positive when Phil is around, and the Chicago crowd certainly turned out today. When you walk on the first tee you always get those butterflies, but it felt special today.’’
Burmester, eighth in the point standing to decide LIV’s season-long individual champion, hasn’t ruled himself out of that coveted prize, which will be determined after next week’s tournament at the Club at Chatham Hills in Indianapolis.
When Brand faltered Rahm, the defending champion of LIV/Chicago, climbed into a tie with Ballester and improved his chances to both win on Sunday and repeat as the LIV Individual season champion. He’s still winless for this season but remains in second place in the standings and closing the gap on five-time winner Joaquin Niemann of Chile.
Niemann is down in a tie for 35th place and may have trouble hanging on to his season-long lead through Sunday’s final round at Bolingbrook Golf Club and next week’s wrapup to LIV’s Individual point race in Indianapolis.
Rahm got his game going with a 4-iron second shot at the 12th hole that set up an eagle.
“That was about as good as I can hit a golf shot,’’ he said, “and making that eagle is what changed the momentum for the rest of the round. The goal is to win, and by winning I’ll get the most amount of points I can possibly get, and then I’ll need a little luck on my side that Joaquin doesn’t have a good week.’’
Ballester gets the honor of playing in the same threesome with Burmester and Rahm in Sunday’s final round. A “dumb’’ bogey detracted from Ballester’s round on Saturday. It came at the 18th hole.
“I hit a 410-yard drive,’’ he said. “I was about 20 yards from the green, and hit four shots from there. I was honestly not expecting to leave that hole with a bogey after the drive that I hit.’’
Should Ballester win on Sunday he’ll be the youngest player to win a LIV tournament.
“I’d think of it like the accomplishment of starting my professional career in not the best way, and in two months turning it around and winning in fashion – especially with Jon in the final pairing and with many great players,’’ said Ballester.
Ballester, like Rahm, is from Spain. He turned pro after completing his college studies at Arizona State. Though that was Mickelson’s alma mater Garcia, as captain of the Fireballs, picked him to join his team. The Fireballs are in a three-way tie for the lead in the LIV/Chicago team competition with Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers and Louis Oosthuizen’s Stinger.
