The joy was not complete for Spanish golf in the first major cut of the LIV Golf School that started this Thursday in Florida. Pablo Ereño continues. Joel Moscatel is out. Heads and tails. A happy, powerful, and even confident face. While the tail has been painful. The full house was not so far away.
A total of 60 golfers competed in these first 18 holes of the so-called LIV Golf Promotions. Of which, the top 20 and ties advanced to the second day. The rest, home. Well, Ereño (-4), with a scorecard of 66 strokes, achieved the goal comfortably. So much so that he finished in second place and there was a moment when he took the lead.
Pablo displayed very solid golf all day on the demanding par 70 of the Ranch course, one of the courses at the Black Diamond Ranch complex, where the LIV School is debuting this year. Conditions were perfect, not a drop of wind, and even so, they didn’t tear up the course. This Sunshine State layout defends itself well.
Ereño hit the ball very well and, above all, chipped wonderfully. He didn’t face major troubles. The worst moment, with the situation already under control, was on the 16th hole, with three to go. He hit out of bounds off the tee and still managed to make birdie with the second ball to secure a valuable bogey. At that point, he was five under, at the top of the leaderboard. Until then, he had made six birdies and a solitary bogey. A movie-like performance. Very sharp all day with short putts.
The other side of the coin was Moscatel. He signed a round of 72 strokes and was out with +2 in total, three off the target. In line with his entire 2025 year where things haven’t quite worked out for him. It was a difficult round to digest. He only made one birdie, one bogey, and a double bogey on the 16th that hurt him a lot (he started on the 19th). Some opportunities slipped away here and there. He arrived at the 9th hole, the last of his round, with a +2 score, already without options. That final hole is a par 5 where you can reach in two with some ease, but even an eagle wouldn’t have been enough. Finally, he finished with par and 72 in total.
A total of 29 players have qualified for the second day. This Friday they will join the 18 who were exempt and will play another 18 holes on this same course with the goal of finishing among the top 20 and ties again to advance to the final 36 holes where the three LIV cards and the ten and ties of the International Series will be decided. Pablo Ereño will be in that fight.
In addition to the Madrid native, the qualified players are Canadian Richard T. Lee, Irish Max Kennedy, Thais Sadom Kaewkanjana and Suteepat Prateeptienchai, Korean Hontaek Kim, South Africans Louis Albertse and Oliver Bekker, English Charlie Foster, German Dominic Foos, Americans Chase Koepka and Austen Truslow, Thai Sarit Suwannarut, Dane Lucas Bjerregaard, Australian Will Florimo, Thai Poom Saksansin, Australian Travis Smyth, Korean Sung Kug Park, German Max Kieffer, Japanese Tomoyo Ikemura, American Collin Adams, French Julien Brun, Peruvian Julián Perico, Welsh James Ashfield, Australian Cory Crawford, Mexican José Islas, Thai Pavit Tangkamolprasert, English Joe Pagdin, and Austrian Matthias Schwab.
Surely, the cruellest story of the day was that of veteran Frenchman Alex Levy. With one hole to go, he was within the top 20 and finished with a triple bogey on the 18th to be left out.
