ROCESTER: Jon Rahm is used to being in contention after most of his LIV Golf rounds this season. But for the first time since coming to the league, he has the direct lead.
Thanks to a bogey-free 8-under 63, Rahm has a two-stroke lead over Abraham Ancer and Andy Ogletree after the first round at LIV Golf UK by JCB. Meanwhile, his Legion XIII sits atop the team leaderboard by one stroke over Smash GC, HyFlyers GC, and Fireballs GC.
Friday's round was Rahm's 29th in LIV Golf. He has been inside the top five after 13 of those rounds, including a tie for the lead after the first round in Jeddah.
Six other times, Rahm has finished in the top 10. In each of his nine completed tournaments – he had to withdraw in Houston due to a foot infection – he has produced a top-10 finish, and he is currently second behind Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann in the season-long points standings.
It's an impressive display of consistency that Rahm hopes will see him clinch his first individual LIV Golf title this week at JCB Golf & Country Club.
“Nothing much to say obviously, but good stuff,” said Rahm, who entered the week off a tie for seventh at The Open Championship, his best major finish of the year. “Played really good golf all day. With days like this it almost feels easy.”
Rahm played in the same group with his teammate and former Ryder Cup partner, Tyrrell Hatton, along with another Legion XIII player, Caleb Surratt, as the LIV Golf captains were grouped with their top two teammates for the first round.
Not only did Rahm go low — the 8-under score matches his lowest LIV Golf round in relation to par — but Hatton shot 66, bouncing back from an opening double bogey. The duo powered Legion XIII's 12-under total which also included a tallying score of 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 the first time I played with some teammates in LIV Golf,” said Rahm, who had six birdies in his final nine holes to pull away from the pack. “I wasn't sure how it would go. I was kind of 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 have some momentum going into the weekend.”
Ancer, the winner via the playoff earlier this year in Hong Kong, finished with a rise. The Fireballs star birdied four of his final five holes during a brilliant putting round to lead the field.
Ogletree's best finish in his first full LIV Golf season is a tie for third in Adelaide. He has been battling a wrist injury that could require offseason surgery and forced him to make some swing adjustments to ease the pain.
“I've had a lot of days where I've played 13 and 14 really good holes and then kind of held back with a bad stretch,” the HyFlyers member said. “Today I was in it all day and played good 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 Majestic GC local Sam Horsfield – are four strokes off the lead in a tie for sixth.
On a course unfamiliar to most players and expected to give up low scores reluctantly, 35 of the 54 players in the field broke par, averaging more than one stroke under par.
It was no surprise to Rahm. “You can't say it's surprising when the best players in the world show up on a court,” he said.
Standings and counting points for Friday's opening round:
The top three scores from each team count in the first two rounds while all four scores count in the final round. The team with the lowest cumulative points 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. CRUSHERS 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 HEAD GC Even (Na 70, Vincent 70, Kozuma 73)
