Jon Rahm (-5) has not had a bad start at the LIV Adelaide Golf. After 18 holes, he keeps his victory options intact. However, there is a certain inevitable bitter aftertaste due to a slight disconnection he has suffered during three holes.
The golfer from Barrika, faithful to his tradition since he joined LIV, has quickly climbed up the leaderboard with a birdie on the 5th and four more consecutive ones between holes 7 and 10. Playing in the star match alongside Cameron Smith and Sergio García, the Spaniard delighted the thousands of Australian fans who once again did not fail to attend the sport event.
With that five under par partial, Jon set his sights on the lead, although it was necessary to keep rowing, and a lot, because the results today have been very low on the The Grange Golf course. Everything pointed to us continuing to see birdies from the Spanish champion, but the reality is that he has suffered a kind of unexpected short circuit. Three bad consecutive irons on holes 14, 15 and 16 have put him in trouble. He made bogey on the first two and at least managed to save par on the third.
In any case, the three under par accumulated tasted very little, much more if we take into account that the leader, the Japanese Jinichiro Kozuma (-9), a golfer who has come to LIV through his School, was on fire. That’s why, once again, we have to take our hats off to Rahm’s ability to strike, strike and strike again. He finished with two splendid birdies on holes 17 and 18, the last one with a putt that had a lot of suspense, to finish in the top 10 and fully involved in the fight. Four strokes from the lead.
However, he already knows that he will have to play very well the next 36 holes if he wants to win the tournament, as very low rounds have been made and he has nine players ahead. Kozuma has a one-stroke margin over Danny Lee and Carlos Ortiz, two over Mito Pereira, Andy Ogletree, Peter Uihlein and Anirban Lahiri and three over Matt Jones and Brendan Steele. For now, except for Rahm, the big names of LIV are missing in action.
The playing conditions have been very good, the greens were impeccable for putting and this has been reflected in the results. Those who have not been able to take advantage of it on the first day are Sergio García (-1), David Puig (PAR) and Eugenio Chacarra (+3). Sergio has debuted caddie after his break with Glen Murray after the Masters. He has returned with Neil Wallace, with whom he already worked for a few months after a previous separation from Murray. Puig had a bad finish with two bogeys that made him lose ground in the classification, while Chacarra closes the classification.
As for the team results, the Niemann Torque lead with a one-stroke advantage over Kevin Na’s Iron Heads and three over Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers.
