Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm and teammate Tyrrell Hatton at a press conference after day two of LIV Golf Riyadh on Friday. Image courtesy LIV Golf/Jon Ferrey.
From a Correspondent
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Jon Rahm and his Legion XIII teammates each enter Saturday’s final round at LIV Golf Riyadh presented by Ma’aden with an outside chance of the individual title.
In terms of the team competition, though, Legion XIII already have one collective foot atop the podium.
Legion XIII extended their team lead to a commanding 11 strokes in Friday night’s second round at Riyadh Golf Club, shooting the field’s best team score for the second consecutive night.
Their second day 18 under par total moved them to 42 under for the first two rounds, giving the foursome an 11-stroke advantage over Torque GC.
“Extremely proud,” Rahm said of his team’s dominant start in the season opener.
“I don’t know what else to add to that. Obviously yesterday was a fantastic start and it didn’t take very long today, either, for the whole team to get going.”
Individually, Legion XIII players make up 50% of the top eight players on the leaderboard. Tyrrell Hatton and Caleb Surratt each shot 5 under 67s on Friday and are tied for fourth at 11 under.
Rahm also shot 67 and newcomer Tom McKibbin shot 69, as each finished at 10 under and in a three-way tie for 6th.
Masterful Meronk
Cleeks GC’s Adrian Meronk backed up his opening 10 under 62 with a 6 under 66 to grab a two-shot lead over Torque GC’s Sebastián Muñoz. Ripper GC’s Lucas Herbert was solo third at 12 under after his 64 on Friday, the low round of the day.
Catching Meronk seems like a tall ask, giving his form the first two days. But Legion XIII will have plenty of chances with four players in contention in the first tournament since a format change to all scores counting on each round.
No team have swept the podium since Stinger GC pulled off the feat in the 2022 inaugural LIV Golf event in London.
“I think if we all focus on trying to win individually and give it the best shot we can to do that, I think we can put a strong enough performance where we’d be hard to catch,” Rahm said of his team’s large lead.
“But we still have to go out there tomorrow and take care of it. Nothing is guaranteed until the last putt drops.”
Although Meronk didn’t match his flawless performance in the opening round when he hit all 18 greens, the 31-year-old from Poland relied on his putting, needing just 26 putts.
With Muñoz nipping at his heels, Meronk never surrendered the lead. At the par-3 17th, he extended it to two shots with a 15-foot birdie putt while Muñoz followed by missing a 5-footer for birdie.
Solid show
“I played quite solid,” said Meronk, whose only bogey this week came at the par-4 11th. “I had a couple of bad swings, but overall, I’m very happy with the result and excited for tomorrow.”
Muñoz matched Meronk’s 66 and has the field’s hottest putter, needing just 51 putts through the first two rounds.
“I’m just going to try to shoot as low as possible, make as many birdies as possible like I’ve been doing the last two days and see what happens on the 18th green,” Muñoz said. “There’s no other strategy than that.”
Meronk and Muñoz have each celebrated LIV Golf wins as members of winning teams but not as individuals. That could change on Saturday for one of them.
“It would be special for sure, especially the first of the year,” Meronk said.
“But I don’t want to focus on that. My only focus tomorrow will be just one shot at a time and playing my best golf as possible, and we’ll see what happens.” (courtesy LIV Golf)
Day two scores
1. Legion XIII -42 (Hatton 67, Rahm 67, Surratt 67, McKibbin 69, Rahm 67; Rd. 2: -18)
2. Torque GC -31 (Ortiz 65, Muñoz 66, Pereira 70, Niemann 71; Rd. 2: -16)
T3. Ripper GC -28 (Herbert 64, Jones 68, Leishman 68, Smith 72; Rd. 2: -16)
T3. RangeGoats GC -28 (Wolff 66, Watson 68, Campbell 69, Uihlein 71; Rd. 2: -14)
T3. Crushers GC -28 (DeChambeau 66, Lahiri 67, Casey 69, Howell III 73; Rd. 2: -13)
T6. Cleeks GC -24 (Meronk 66, Kaymer 69, Kjettrup 70, Bland 72; Rd. 2: -11)
T6. Majesticks GC -17 (Horsfield 69, Poulter 69, Westwood 71, Stenson 73; Rd. 2: -7)
8. Fireballs GC -20 (Garcia 68, Ancer 70, Masaveu 71, Puig 71; Rd. 2: -8)
T9. Stinger GC -13 (Oosthuizen 69, Grace 70, Schwartzel 70, Burmester 71; Rd. 2: -8)
T9. 4Aces GC -13 (Varner III 70, Pieters 71, Johnson 73, Reed 74; Rd. 2: Even)
11. Smash GC -11 (Koepka 67, Kokrak 69, McDowell 70, Gooch 71; Rd. 2: -11)
12. Iron Heads GC -9 (Jang 72, Na 72, Ormsby 72, Lee 74; Rd. 2: +2)
13. HyFlyers GC -6 (Schniederjans 69, Tringale 71, Steele 72, Ogletree 73; Rd. 2: -3)
Wild Cards: Lee 71, Kim 73
Round two stats
Driving accuracy: Richard Bland, Branden Grace, Henrik Stenson, 78.57% (11 of 14 fairways hit)
Driving distance: Peter Uihlein, 326.3 yards avg.
Longest drive: Peter Uihlein, 345.5 yards, 10th hole
Greens in regulation: Dean Burmester, 94.44% (17 of 18 greens)
Scrambling: 14 players with 100%, led by Sam Horsfield (7 of 7) and Thomas Pieters (7 of 7)
Putting: Lucas Herbert, 1.33 putts per hole
Bogey-free rounds: Lucas Herbert (64), Carlos Ortiz (65), Sebastián Muñoz (66), Matthew Wolff (66), Caleb Surratt (67), Anirban Lahiri (67), Sam Horsfield (68), Bubba Watson (68), Louis Oosthuizen (69), Dean Burmester (71)
Also read: Adrian Meronk is early leader at season-opening LIV Golf Riyadh
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