DeChambeau holds day two lead at punishing LIV Miami venue

Crushers GC captain Bryson DeChambeau who leads LIV Golf Miami in action during round two on Saturday. Image courtesy LIV Golf/Mike Stobe.

From a Correspondent

Miami: Bryson DeChambeau started his day with a 400-yard drive, and he closed with two birdies. In between, he showed incredible patience on a Blue Monster course that gets increasingly difficult each day.
 
As a result, the Crushers GC captain will enter Sunday’s final round of LIV Golf Miami with the lead and a potentially huge momentum boost entering next week’s Masters.
 
DeChambeau’s 2 under par 70 in Saturday’s second round at Trump National Doral left him at 5 under and leading by two shots over Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia.

Another stroke back were HyFlyers GC captain Phil Mickelson, 4Aces GC’s Patrick Reed and Ripper GC’s Marc Leishman. Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm and defending champion Dean Burmester of Stinger GC were tied for sixth.
 
It’s a stacked leaderboard, appropriate for a course that’s offering the sternest challenge in LIV Golf’s young history.
 
“What a test of golf out there,” said DeChambeau, the reigning US Open champion who is seeking his third LIV Golf individual title. “This golf course, every single angle just produced the most testing golf shots out there that I’ve seen in a long time.”

Killer stats

Saturday’s field stroke average of 75.111 was more than three strokes above par, making it the second most-difficult round in LIV Golf, exceeded only by the Rd. 1 in 2024 Andalucia (+3.519 over par).

Add Friday’s first round at Doral – the third most difficult day in LIV Golf – and the first two rounds this week have been the hardest 36 holes the league has ever seen.
 
Consider the team leaderboard: Ripper GC lead with a collective 9 over, thanks in large part to Lucas Herbert’s second-round 3 under 69, the only individual score shot in the 60s on Saturday.

4Aces GC were second at 11 over, while the Fireballs and Crushers were on 12 over. The last-place Cleeks GC were on 46 over par.
 
No team has ever won a LIV Golf tournament with an over-par score.
 
“It’s just a difficult golf course,” said Garcia, whose Fireballs are seeking their fourth consecutive tournament title. “It’s the Blue Monster. That’s just not a name; it comes with something. You have to respect it.”

Patience pays

Players also have to be patient. Certainly, DeChambeau was on Saturday through a stretch of 10 consecutive holes midway through his second round that included nine pars and a bogey.
 
It was a matter of survival until he reached the drivable par-4 16th, in which he smoked his drive across the water and behind the green, then hit a chip shot from a difficult lie that set up the first of two consecutive birdies that gave him the outright lead.

“I took a big sigh,” DeChambeau said. “If that goes into the water, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh, no, now I’m really screwing the pooch.’”
 
The drive was one of several on Saturday that DeChambeau hit solid but wasn’t always rewarded due to the challenging scoring conditions.

He leads this week in driving distance average at 341.6 yards and is tied for 10th in fairway accuracy at 53.57%.
 
“There were a few holes where I could’ve lost it and it gone the other way,” DeChambeau added.

“You’ve just got to stay patient and make a putt when you have to, and if you don’t, try to steer that ship back on track as quickly as possible.”

Garcia, a winner earlier this season in Hong Kong, played steady golf with three birdies and two bogeys. He made several clutch putts, including an 8-footer to save par at the 14th hole during a stretch of 10 consecutive bogey-free holes.
 
“I hit a lot of great shots on very challenging conditions, even tougher than yesterday,” he said.

Hanging in

Mickelson, LIV Golf’s most decorated player with six majors and 57 career wins, shot a 1 over 73 despite starting his round with three consecutive bogeys. He would’ve shot even par had he not three-putted his final hole, the par-5 first.
 
“I started off very poorly; I was 3-over through three and lucky to be that,” said the 54-year-old Hall of Famer. “I was able to hang in there, fight back and had a chance to shoot even par, which was amazing.”
 
Leishman joins DeChambeau and Garcia as the only player to shoot under par in each of the first two rounds. His second consecutive 1-under 71 was highlighted by an 84-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole.
 
Reed, the first-round leader after an opening 67, followed with a 3 over 75 that included five bogeys on his front nine.

But he still has a chance at his first LIV Golf victory as one of just seven players under par through the first two days.
 
For now, they’re all chasing DeChambeau, with forecasts of even stronger wind gusts on Sunday.
 
“I’m up for anything,” DeChambeau said. “Whatever it brings me, I’m up for the challenge. It will be a great test tomorrow.” (courtesy LIV Golf)

Round 2 scores

1. Ripper GC +9 (Herbert 69, Leishman 71, Smith 74, Jones 76; Rd. 2 score: +2)
 
2. 4Aces GC +11 (Pieters 73, Johnson 75, Reed 75, Varner III 76; Rd. 2 score: +11)
 
T3. Fireballs GC +12 (Garcia 71, Puig 71, Masaveu 76, Ancer 77; Rd. 2 score: +7)
 
T3. Crushers GC +12 (DeChambeau 70, Howell III 74, Casey 79, Lahiri 79; Rd. 2 score: +14)
 
5. Iron Heads GC +13 (Lee 71, Na 72 Song 72, Jang 75; Rd. 2 score: +2)
 
6. Legion XIII +17 (Rahm 70, McKibbin 73, Hatton 77, Surratt 77; Rd. 2 score: +9)
 
T7. Smash GC +20 (Gooch 73, McDowell 73, Koepka 74, Kokrak 75; Rd. 2 score: +7)
 
T7. HyFlyers GC +20 (Tringale 72, Mickelson 73, Ogletree 75, Steele 77; Rd. 2 score: +9)
 
T7. Stinger GC +20 (Burmester 71, Oosthuizen 71, Schwartzel 75, Grace 81; Rd. 2 score: +10)
 
10. Torque GC +27 (Niemann 72, Ortiz 73, Muñoz 79, Pereira 79; Rd. 2 score: +15)
 
11. Majesticks GC +31 (Poulter 75, Westwood 75, Stenson 76, Horsfield 77; Rd. 2 score: +15)
 
12. RangeGoats GC +33 (Watson 75, Campbell 76, Uihlein 76, Wolff 81; Rd. 2 score: +15)
 
13. Cleeks GC +46 (Kjettrup 76, Meronk 77, Bland 69, Kaymer 80; Rd. 2 score: +24)
 
Wild Cards: Kim 83, C. Lee 84

Round 2 stats

Driving accuracy: Tom McKibbin, 71.43% (10 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: Bryson DeChambeau, 345.6 yards avg.
Longest drive: Bryson DeChambeau, 400.2 yards, 1st hole
Greens in regulation: Kevin Na, 83.33% (14 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: Sergio Garcia, 87.50% (7 of 8)
Putting: Jason Kokrak, 1.11 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: None

Also read: Patrick Reed tops on rough opening day at LIV Golf Miami