ROCESTER: Jon Rahm is used to being in the running after most of his LIV Golf rounds this season, but for the first time since joining the league, he has the sole lead.
Thanks to a bogey-free 8-under 63, Rahm holds a two-stroke lead over Abraham Ancer and Andy Ogletree after the first round at LIV Golf UK by JCB, while his Legion XIII sits atop the team leaderboard by one stroke ahead of Smash GC, HyFlyers GC and Fireballs GC.
Friday's round was Rahm's 29th at LIV Golf, and he has finished in the top five after 13 of those rounds, including a tie for the lead after the first round in Jeddah.
Rahm finished in the top 10 six more times. In each of his nine tournaments – he had to withdraw in Houston due to a foot infection – he achieved a top 10 result and is currently in second place in the season rankings behind Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann.
It's an impressive display of consistency that Rahm hopes to culminate with his first individual LIV Golf title this week at JCB Golf & Country Club.
“There's obviously not much to say except good things,” said Rahm, who started the week with a tied seventh place finish at the Open Championship, his best major finish of the year. “I played really good golf all day. On days like this, it almost feels effortless.”
Rahm played in the same group as teammate and former Ryder Cup partner Tyrrell Hatton and another Legion XIII player, Caleb Surratt, as the LIV Golf captains played in a group with their top two teammates for the first round.
Not only did Rahm play poorly – the 8-under par score matches his lowest LIV golf round in terms of par – but Hatton shot 66, recovering from an opening double bogey. The duo contributed to Legion XIII's 12-under par total, which included a 72 from Kieran Vincent. Legion XIII has won three team titles in its first season and is second in the points standings behind Crushers GC.
“It was my first time playing golf with teammates at LIV,” said Rahm, who made six birdies on his final nine holes to pull away from the rest. “I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I was a little curious.”
Hatton said: “We've shared some pretty cool stages over the last few years and we generally play well when we play together, so it was nice for both of us to get a good round of golf and head into the weekend with some momentum.”
Ancer, who won a playoff in Hong Kong earlier this year, finished in style. The Fireballs star made birdies on four of his last five holes during a brilliant putting round that saw him lead the field.
Ogletree's best finish during his first full LIV golf season is a tied third at Adelaide. He battled a wrist injury that may require offseason surgery, forcing him to make some swing adjustments to ease the pain.
“I've had a lot of days where I've played really good holes 13 and 14 and then had a bad stretch hold me back,” said the HyFlyers member. “Today I was there all day and played solid golf.”
Hatton and Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith are tied for fourth, while a group of seven players – including Smash GC captain Brooks Koepka and local resident Sam Horsfield of Majesticks GC – share sixth place, four strokes behind the leader.
On a course unfamiliar to most players and where one would be reluctant to expect low scores, 35 of the 54 players in the field finished under par, with a stroke average of more than one stroke under par.
For Rahm, it was no surprise. “You can't really call it a surprise when the best players in the world show up on a course,” he said.
Table standings and points from the opening round on Friday:
Each team's top three scores count in the first two rounds, while all four scores count in the final round. The team with the lowest overall score after three rounds wins the team title.
1. LEGION XIII -12 (Rahm 63, Hatton 66, Vincent 72)
T2. FIREBALLS GC-11 (Ancer 65, Garcia 68, Puig 69)
T2. SMASH GC-11 (Koepka 67, McDowell 67, Gooch 68)
T2. HYFLYERS GC-11 (Ogletree 65, Tringale 67, Mickelson 70)
T5. RIPPER GC -9 (Smith 66, Herbert 69, Jones 69)
T5. RANGEGOATS GC -9 (Wolff 67, Uihlein 68, Watson 69)
7. STINGER GC -8 (Oosthuizen 67, Burmester 68, Schwartzel 70)
8. TORQUE GC -6 (Munoz 68, Niemann 69, Pereira 70)
T9. CRUSHER GC -5 (Casey 67, Lahiri 69, Catlin 72)
T9. CLEEKS GC -5 (Meronk 68, Bland 69, Samooja 71)
11. MAJESTICKS GC -4 (Horsfield 67, Stenson 70, Westwood 72)
12. 4ACES GC -1 (Varner 69, Johnson 71, Reed 72)
13. IRON HEADS GC tie (Na 70, Vincent 70, Kozuma 73)
