Canter powers Majesticks to individual, team leads at Indy

From a Correspondent

Westfield, Indiana: Laurie Canter has found his form in recent starts. So have his Majesticks Golf Club. As a result, the All-English team are off to a hot start in its pursuit of a dream finish to the 2026 season.

Canter produced the best round of his LIV Golf career, an 8 under par 62, for a one-shot lead over Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith and wild card Richard T. Lee after Thursday’s opening round of the season-ending LIV Golf Indianapolis Championships. 

The Majesticks top the team leaderboard, shooting a cumulative 17 under at The Club at Chatham Hills for a two-shot advantage over Ripper and Legion XIII.

The Majesticks have never won a team trophy of any kind and haven’t reached the podium in the last 53 LIV Golf stroke-play tournaments but are now three rounds away from becoming the 2026 team champions.

“I hope we can do that the next three days,” Canter said. “It would be massive. For all the people who work for Majesticks and us as players, to have a real run at a team event would be a lot of fun.”

The Majesticks finished 11th or worse in eight of the first nine tournaments this season, but a solo fifth in their home event at LIV Golf UK followed by a T5 two weeks ago in New York gave them momentum and hope entering this week’s season finale.

Strange situation

“It’s a strange situation because we’ve not played great as a team for most of the year,” said co-captain Lee Westwood, who finished T3 in New York and is among a group of eight tied for fourth at 6 under, two shots behind Canter. 

“Obviously we’ve just hit a bit of form recently. But to have a great chance to do something this week is obviously something we didn’t expect to happen. We’re obviously grabbing it with both hands.”

Canter, an original member of the Majesticks during the inaugural 2022 season, has produced his three best results of the season in his last four starts, with top-15 finishes in Korea, the UK and New York, where he posted a season-best T11.

On Thursday, he suffered an early bogey but immediately bounced back with birdies in five of his next six holes. 

He said finding his comfort zone took a while upon returning to the league to fill the Majesticks’ vacancy due to Henrik Stenson’s relegation.

In the dumps

“Early on, to be honest, because I felt like I was really not finding my game, my sort of personal pride probably took a hit with it,” Canter said. 

“I’ve wanted to play better and contribute to the team more and try and feel like I could drive some good performances. Maybe I tried a bit hard to do that initially.”

One of his closest pursuers, Cam Smith, has been trying hard to improve his accuracy off the tee. He ranked 53rd in fairways hit at 51.79% coming into this week but was one of four players to hit all 14 fairways on Thursday. 

It’s the first time in three years Smith has produced perfect accuracy off the tee at a LIV Golf tournament.

“The fairways are pretty forgiving around here as well, which is nice,” Smith said. 

“I didn’t hit every drive perfect, but it was kind of where I was aiming. The driver is starting to feel really nice.”

Team battle

Previous team championships were a combination of match play and stroke play, but with the schedule adjustment announced earlier in the week, the format this time is a four-round shootout with all four scores counting, a carryover from the regular-season format.

Majesticks have lost in the quarter-finals in each of the previous three times but may be benefiting from the format change due to finding their form down the stretch.

“If you’re trending in the right direction, then you want it to be a format where it rewards consistency,” said Westwood. 

“With the format being match play in previous years, it’s very fast. It’s like a sprint over 18 holes. But this week if we’re all playing well and trending into form, then 72 holes is going to suit us more.”

Just four teams claimed the 11 trophies during the regular season, with 4Aces GC, Ripper GC and Crushers GC winning three times and Legion XIII winning twice. 

Each of those teams, incidentally, have won the team championship in a previous LIV Golf season. 

Ripper and Legion XIII are just two strokes behind the Majesticks after Thursday’s opening round while the Aces are in solo fourth, four shots back.

“We’ve won one before and want another one,” Cam Smith said. “It would be cool to go out this season with a bang.”

Unfamiliar terrain

The Crushers, meanwhile, are in unfamiliar territory, last place at 6 over.

DeChambeau’s 65 was offset by Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri, who were a combined 11 over. 

The Crushers started off slowly two weeks ago in New York but worked their way up the leaderboard to win their 11th regular-season team title, most in league history.

“Look, there’s been times where we were almost dead last and then we came back and won like last week in New York,” DeChambeau said. 

“Maybe they need some better sleep or something. I have no idea. They’re all individuals on their own; they’re grown men. 

“They’re all older than me, so I can’t really kick them in the butt or do anything because they’ll just look at me and go, ‘What are you doing? You’re like our son.’ 

“Nothing I can do there, but I’m just hoping we can turn it around.” (courtesy LIV Golf)

Leaderboards

Individual Top 10

1. (-8) – Laurie Canter, Majesticks (62)

T2 (-7) – Richard T. Lee, Wild Card (63); Cameron Smith, Ripper (63)

T4 (-6) – Joaquin Niemann, Torque (64); Dean Burmester, Southern Guards (64); Dustin Johnson, 4Aces (64); Sergio Garcia, Fireballs (64); Caleb Surratt, Legion XIII (64); Brendan Steele, HyFlyers (64); Lee Westwood, Majesticks (64); Bubba Watson, RangeGoats (64)

Team Top 3

1. (-17) – Majesticks Golf Club (Canter 62, Westwood 64, Poulter 68, Horsfield 69)

T2 (-15) – Ripper GC (Smith 63, Herbert 66, Leishman 66, Smyth 70); Legion XIII (Surratt 64, Hatton 67, McKibbin 67, Rahm 67)

Day 1 stats

Driving Distance: David Puig, 328.8-yard avg.

Longest Drive:David Puig, 343.5 yards (8th hole). Official measured drives taken only on holes 8 and 18.

Driving Accuracy: Cameron Smith, Bubba Watson, Yosuke Asaji, Louis Oosthuizen, 100% (14 of 14)

Greens in Regulation:Brendan Steele, 88.89% (16 of 18)

Scrambling: Richard Bland (6 of 6), Cameron Smith (5 of 5), Joaquin Niemann (5 of 5), Richard T. Lee (4 of 4), Dustin Johnson (3 of 3), Bubba Watson (3 of 3), Bryson DeChambeau (3 of 3), 100%

Fewest Putts:Lee Westwood, 20

Bogey-free rounds: Cameron Smith (63), Richard T. Lee (63), Dustin Johnson (64), Joaquin Niemann (64), Bubba Watson (64), Bryson DeChambeau (65), Richard Bland (66)

Also read: Neimann wins LIV Golf New York as Crushers nick team title